BodhiMind Center

05/27/2026

Our LINK for all meetings: BodhiMind Center Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 896 2552 0695, Passcode: 202201
(and Button for Donations)


May 25, 2026

Dear BodhiMind Friends,

The beginning of an audio book I listened to last night (while in a bath) made me think about the purpose of life. The book was fictional, and the person who was the main character at the start (I heard just thirty minutes) was described as depressed and as thinking for a long while how he might kill himself without his wife or children knowing that he'd intended to do so. Time-wise, that was all I wanted to listen to and, content-wise, the easy, factual tone of the narrative description bothered me. It seemed to be normalizing suicidal ideation, which I suppose can be a meaningful approach since it's not such an uncommon phenomenon and maybe the narrative goes on to offer a healthy way "out." I don't know. But I stopped listening (and probably won't return to it), But it got me thinking.

I asked myself whether I had ever, even subtly, had such ideation. I think the answer is no. I have thought about the topic many times and even whether I could seriously ever imagine contemplating such action, yet it seems too remote a state of mind/being for me.

Then I asked myself why. The first thought that arose as a response was that there are too many people in the world whose presence I value profoundly. I feel grateful for them, the gifts of their intelligence, kindness, joyful humor, insight and more. Something about the gifts that others offer, and the love I receive from them, makes me feel appreciated.

Then I reflected on how this reason seems selfish. It's about how my life is important, is worth preserving, because I am fortunate to have people in my life who give to me, who love me. I then thought that such selfishness is not such a bad thing, as it's not overtly hurtful and it's also imbued with much gratitude.

But then I asked myself if this was truly the main reason that I cannot imagine having suicidal ideations. And suddenly, my inner vision shifted. I saw myself in relation to others in a different light. What occurred to me is that it is not only the love from others that I cherish, but it is my capacity to love them that provides me perhaps the greatest joy and strength. I am grateful that I can love and care for others. This simple insight took firm hold of me.

I then realized that it is the presence of others in my life that makes this possible. Yes, sure, my inclination toward being a loving person also matters here, but it could not be fulfilled in the tiniest way without others.

This thought then led to another: What Buddhists call bodhicitta (or bodhimind) is simply the recognition that one's capacity to care for others can provide one's life with profound meaning, coupled with a commitment to growing and extending that capacity as greatly as possible.

This is the foundation of the Mahayana Buddhist path. And it is a key reason why when I was in college reading Buddhist texts for a class that many of the passages hit me so deeply... So much so that I left school for a year to think about what I really wanted to study, during which time I read some wonderful books on Buddhism and taught myself how to meditate. ....

The final thought I had (before leaving the bath!) was how powerfully healing bodhimind can be. I reflected on some people I have met - and many others I have heard about - who cannot find good reasons to go on living. It is very tragic that their minds and spirits feel stuck in such despondence, where they feel there is no more joy to live. And I thought about how precious could be the opportunity for them to orient their minds toward others. A key feature of their depression is its self-absorbed quality. "My" life is meaningless, they think. And I'm not making small their pain, or blaming them, as I know it is very difficult to turn deep thought patterns around from this tunnel-vision. But ... what about others? What might you be able to offer them? What opportunities can you create to bring some skill of yours, or just your time, into the lives of other people, even just one person? Everyone ought to be able to discover this impulse within them, even if it's buried beneath other habit energies. Might not the effort to reorient oneself in this way re-energize a depleted sense of life, breathe fresh air into the stuckness?

While this is a core part of the spirit of bodhimind, it has nothing to do with being "Buddhist." It's simply about finding more meaning and purpose in your by giving to others, even in small ways. And, of course, Buddhism offers much fine guidance for such a path of practice.

This spirit is at the heart of the untranslatable mantra Om Mani Padme Hum.

I repeat this mantra many times a day. It provides a pause from the crushing surge of modern drives... it turns my being toward a centeredness that dwells in compassion and joy. It is a practice that brings me peace.

May we all find more peace from our practice - whatever it may be.

- David Gardiner

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TUESDAY, May 26th, 6 pm: In-person and by Zoom, with David Gardiner

TOPIC: Meaning through Loving

Meditation together, and discussion.

And we will chant Om Mani Padme Hum
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THURSDAY, May 28th, 6 pm: by Zoom ONLY, with Karen Recktenwald

TOPIC: Awareness of the Structure of Your Practice

You can adjust a little bit here and there according to what you need to transform.”

“I would like to discuss a little bit on how to put together the whole suitable package of practice and structure it in a certain way for you. For a practice session to be complete, there are four steps that must be present…Refuge, Bodhicitta, Meditation, Dedication.” ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Archives, June 26, 2020

Dear Friends,

One might call Daily Practice the bedrock of our Practice. How we practice meditation each morning, afternoon, or evening shapes our body, heart and mind. This daily practice conditions our body sensations, feeling tones, perceptions, thoughts, emotions, moods and energies, and of course our speech and actions. We’ll explore a couple of examples from different Buddhist lineages, of which there are so many varied possibilities. They all agree on one thing, that the best practice is the one that you actually do! Thus we follow the Middle Way and choose a structure that resonates in your heart and has a place on your daily calendar.

“There’s a lot of amazing philosophy to talk about, but the nuts and bolts of the practice is where I like to spend time. All the learning and insight emerge from you meeting your direct experience.” ~ Will Kabat-Zinn, Sunday Sangha, 5/3/2026
Very Important Announcement:
Three Upcoming Retreats teaching “Fully Being: A Path of Awareness, Healing & Insight,” with Adam Kane. Adam is Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s chief translator, and someone from whom I have learned so much. Feel free to email me with questions, [email protected]

May 29-31 (3 days – 2 nights, additional nights @ half rate) HERE. Drala Mountain Center, Colorado.
June 5-7 (3 days – 2 nights) Here Denver Shambhala Center, Denver, CO.

July 1-5 (4 days and nights, pay before 5/1/26 for 10% discount) HERE. Dorje Denma Ling Center, Nova Scotia



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04/28/2026

Our LINK for all meetings: BodhiMind Center Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 896 2552 0695, Passcode: 202201
(and Button for Donations)


April 27, 2026

Dear BodhiMind Friends,

This Thursday Victor Reyes will lead meditation and discussion. See below for details.

Also see the repeat announcement below for a wonderful speaker, Chenxing Han, who will offer a free talk open to the public at Colorado College about Asian Americans within the fold of US Buddhists. See the poster below. The talk is the Max Kade Theater on the 3rd floor of Armstrong Hall on the CC campus. Armstrong Hall is the large red brick building on the northeast corner of Cascade and Cache La Poudre. Parking is unfortunately not available for the public on campus, so you need to park nearby, perhaps along Cascade Avenue a couple blocks south of CC, or east of campus along Cache La Poudre.

Meanwhile, I will share last week's message again here:

Yesterday morning, in that crepuscular, intermediate state between sleeping and waking, a phrase came into my mind: "View all beings as made of light." It's not a cluster of words that I've said or heard before, that I can recall. But it struck me strongly, and I repeated it to myself throughout the morning.

Where do things of the slippery in-between dream world come from? No theories here, just radiant wonder.

View all beings
as
made of light

It has a nice ring to it, this voice from beyond (or within, or whatever). I think I will lead Tuesday's meditation with this image. I think I'll note how it can encapsulate the themes of Wisdom and Compassion we've been discussing and trying to jointly embody for some weeks now.

Short version: Light is an image often employed in Buddhist texts to convey the universal, embracing, radiant, and non-obstructive nature of mind as well as of all reality. The subject and object dimensions of perception - self as thinker and world-out-there as what we think about - are never fully separable. Always deeply entwined. It is all pervaded by soft light.

This depiction aligns with the teachings of "emptiness" - that nothing is its own thing, everything arises and changes in relation to infinite other causes and conditions. This is not to say, in Buddhist thought, that "all is one." Individuality remains. An apple is not a pear, and I am not a dog.

And yet neither am I an entirely independent being with an unchanging and locatable core. I morph and merge... e-merged from mother's womb, change by days and years, eventually will melt away. Yet this pattern of a person that we call by my name is not another person. It is David. And it is not. Both senses are true, just on different levels, different ways of seeing the situation.

Here is the Wisdom component. Freeing up vision to the openness, groundlessness, vast expanse of interconnected, changing being. As the ancient Chinese texts say, everything is "being, emerging from non-being, and then eventually returning..."

And the compassion portion is how this vision of reality, when deeply pondered, causes us to see others' interests, needs, joys, and pains as somehow inextricably connected to ours. Not to say "we are all one." This phrasing is not problematic in the sense that it can foster a sense of unity. But it's important not to let it erase the marvelous diversity and complexity of being. We are one and we are many, at the same time. Ancient Chinese Buddhists called this the world of 事事無碍 - each existent thing is an individual yet there is no obstruction between them. The parallel metaphor they used is of "interpenetration."

Interpenetration. Here we are: View all beings as made of light.

Come share with us.

- David Gardiner

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TUESDAY, April 28, 6 pm: In-person and by Zoom, with David Gardiner

TOPIC: Seeing all beings as made of light

Meditation, dharma talk, and discussion
__________

THURSDAY, April 30rd, 6 pm: In-person and by Zoom, with Victor Reyes

TOPIC: Wisdom, Compassion, Power



Continuing our reflection on the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, we will focus our dharma talk on the foundational paramitas of patience and diligence.

Even if we are not on a Buddhist path, these practices are beneficial to any human being who is focused on developing the resilience necessary to handle the adversities of life by accessing their compassion and wisdom.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the three Buddhas who represent these concepts are:

Avalokiteshvara (Compassion/Karuna):Known as Chenrezig in Tibet and Guan Yin in China, this bodhisattva embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He vows to help all beings, sometimes delaying his own Buddhahood to do so.

Manjushri (Wisdom/Prajna): Represents enlightened wisdom and cuts through ignorance, helping practitioners understand the true nature of reality.

Vajrapani (Power/Karma): Embodies the energy and power to overcome obstacles, acting as the third member of the trio representing compassion, wisdom, and power

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PUBLIC TALK ANNOUNCEMENT

This is a special announcement about an upcoming free talk, open to the entire public, at Colorado College on Thursday, April 30th @ 4 pm. I invited Chenxing Han, author of the book Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists," to speak to the public as well as to a class I am teaching.

Her book is beautifully written and is prophetic on issues of race and gender in the U.S. It is also a powerfui testament to how Buddhist teachings and practices can help us deal with these issues.

Please share the word!

The talk is in the Max Kade Theater on the 3rd floor of Armstrong Hall on the CC campus. Armstrong Hall is the large red brick building on the northeast corner of Cascade and Cache La Poudre. Parking is unfortunately not available for the public on campus, so you need to park nearby, perhaps along Cascade Avenue a couple blocks south of CC, or east of campus along Cache La Poudre.

We hope you can come!

David Gardiner

04/19/2026

04/07/2026

Our LINK for all meetings: BodhiMind Center Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 896 2552 0695, Passcode: 202201
(and Button for Donations)


April 6, 2026

Dear BodhiMind Friends,

There is no Thursday meditation this week. Tuesday is both in-person and by Zoom.

Last week's group practice of the Compassion mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum, was very special. While it's not easy at first to chant the mantra and create a visual field at the same time, the effort is entirely worth while. In our discussion afterward there was a range of responses, some expressing difficulty in visualizing and others saying the feeling was remarkable. It's definitely not easy for some folks to do a visualization. Let me say two things about that.

First, many traditional Tibetan teachers say it is not essential that one's visualized image be either clear or in detail. This is not something to worry about. The most important aspect of doing a visualization is the feeling one gets. So even making a small effort with only a tiny result still counts as a really good practice. Why? Because the practice is about trying to embody a state of open, loving compassion while thinking of other beings to whom you send it. That is what we are trying to gain familiarity with, to gradually get accustomed to. Whether a clear image appears in one's mind or not is irrelevant. Naturally, it's possible that for some people having an image that is vibrant with detail can enhance one's focus and deepen the practice. But there is no doubt that one can have a powerful and impactful compassion meditation with the mantra alone. That is, whether one's visualization is barely apparent or one chooses not even to visualize at all, the energy of generating a compassionate mind is the core element of the practice. The chanting of the mantra helps to keep one's body and mind anchored.

Yet in addition, like many other new practices one might learn - whether playing an unfamiliar sport, learning a musical instrument, studying a new language, and so on - repeated practice with effort tends to bring improvement. So trying the visualization many times, especially without setting a high expectation, may prove satisfying. If it feels limp, dull, then don't try for more than a few minutes. Just let the mantra and the feeling of sitting with the heart of great compassion settle in. That's more than enough.

Then next time you do it, try to visualize just a little. Start with a small portion of the image, such as the eyes. If you can even a glimmer, maybe just a vague sense of something there (like a colorless blob of compassion...), consider that success. Then chant away for another 5-10 minutes whether the blurry image remains or not. Next time you meditate, repeat. And the next time, too. Who knows, after ten sessions over a week or so, something might shift. But if it doesn't, no worries. The essence is developing the mind of compassion as firmly as you can. The rest is icing on the compassion cake!

The image below is of Chenrezig, the Tibetan version of the Indian bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara (known as Guanyin in China, Kannon in Japan).

Come practice together.

David Gardiner

______________

In addition to our offerings this week, see at the bottom of today's message an announcement for the Open Heart Sangha's weekend retreat in June.

______________

All our in-person meetings are held from 6:00-8:00 pm at:

2955 Professional Place, Suite 101, Colorado Springs (belonging to the Hammond Law Group)

______________

TUESDAY, April 6th, 6 pm: In-person and by Zoom, with David Gardiner

TOPIC: All-Encompassing Field of Compassion Energy

[The image is of Guanyin]

Since the state of a Buddha's awakening - both her mental and physical being - is understood to be perfect Compassion imbued with perfect Wisdom, we will strive to mimic such a state by cultivating a "force field" of compassion that emanates from our heart center and through every cell of our body but that makes no distinction between inner and outer, self and other.

Yes, this is admittedly rather mystical. And what's wrong with that?

We will use the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum to concentrate our intention and energy. This mantra includes in the core "mani" that refers to compassion and "padme" that refers to wisdom. Two-in-one. David will clarify how this symbolism works.

______

03/24/2026

ur LINK for all meetings: BodhiMind Center Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 896 2552 0695, Passcode: 202201
(and Button for Donations)


March 23, 2026

Dear BodhiMind Friends,

Sorry that this email did not go out on Monday per usual! I was traveling.

The message below is the same as last week's, but the description of Tuesday's meeting after the message is new.

This ancient mantra of Compassion is uttered daily by millions of Buddhists, especially among Tibetans. It combines in its syllables the element of Wisdom folded into Compassion. We will explore this meaning in our discussion and wil strive to manifest its power in our meditation.

We have been working on opening up, as best we can, to cultivating a state of body and mind that incorporates both an awareness of emptiness and a spirit of compassion. Awareness of emptiness is also called wisdom and it forms one of the two "wings" of the path along with compassion. Wisdom is the capacity to see in a direct and deep way that things (including people and ideas) lack any sort of independent, permanent, and findable core. They are all in flux, changing and dependent on various causes and conditions. When you look into something - no matter what it is - closely enough, you see that it's made of various parts, that it has not always existed, that it came to be from various causes and remains relatively stable (for some time) due to various conditions.

Yet all things eventually disappear, cease to be, and die. Right? So what were "they" while they were here? They did exist in some way... we can see them, touch them, etc. The things of our experience are not simply "illusions." And neither is our own person as an "experiencer" an illusion. It is entirely unproductive and even senseless to say that we do not exist. We are here sensing and doing and thinking, most all of the time. Something about this world of ours is real, right? Something exists...

Yes, something does. Buddhist tradition calls this "conventional" existence, or we might say "consensus reality." And the teaching that all things are empty does not deny this conventional reality. The teaching simply points to the fact that when you investigate - with your mind, your eyes, and the logic of your intellect - you cannot discover any sort of independent, unchanging essence of things. Every "thing" exists in a matrix or network of causes and conditions. No "thing" is just itself.

If a thing or person existed by its own power, by some sort of inherent identity that depended on nothing else and that never changed, then the world that we know could not possibly exist as it does.

So, Buddhist tradition says: Things exist but never independently or permanently. Their "existence" is always dependent and impermanent, lacking any trace of an enduring core.

Grasping this idea through words takes some effort. If one works on it, one can begin to see that it's true that everything is this way. We cannot find one thing anywhere that is an exception. Even a galaxy with billions of stars that has existed for billions of years had to come from something other than itself.

And it will not be here forever. This is the truth of emptiness. But as you can see, this truth does not erase the galaxies or their inhabitants. It just sheds a new light on how we "see" them, understand them, and engage with them.

And this is very importantly so for how we see and engage with the inhabitants, the sentient beings who come and go in this mysterious, multi-galactic universe of ours. We can open our eyes, our hearts, and our entire embodied being to see and feel that we are all together in this ever-changing flow that is never-not-empty yet always-feels-real.

To see, to experience, things and beings this way is to embody the "emptiness that is the womb of compassion."

Honestly, this is the Buddhist path - working in all the creative ways we can to embody wisdom and compassion together.


Come practice together.

David Gardiner

______________

In addition to our offerings this week, see at the bottom of today's message an announcement for the Open Heart Sangha's weekend retreat in June.

______________

All our in-person meetings are held from 6:00-8:00 pm at:

2955 Professional Place, Suite 101, Colorado Springs (belonging to the Hammond Law Group)

______________

TUESDAY, March 24th, 6 pm: by Zoom ONLY, with David Gardiner

TOPIC: All-Encompassing Field of Compassion Energy

[The image is of Guanyin, aka Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig]

Since the state of a Buddha's awakening - both her mental and physical being - is understood to be perfect Compassion imbued with perfect Wisdom, we will strive to mimic such a state by cultivating a "force field" of compassion that emanates from our heart center and through every cell of our body but that makes no distinction between inner and outer, self and other.

Yes, this is admittedly rather mystical. And what's wrong with that?

We will use the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum to concentrate our intention and energy. This mantra includes in the core "mani" that refers to compassion and "padme" that refers to wisdom. Two-in-one.
______

THURSDAY, March 26th, 6 pm: In-person and by Zoom, with Karen Recktenwald

TOPIC: Awareness, Our Relationship with Experience



“Our views shape not only how we act, but the way we perceive. �When the Buddha talks about the Eight Fold Path, Right View or Wise View is the first of the links. You are already here. �It's important to say that. A lot of the time, you relate to practice as if you are trying to get here. You're already here and you're already experiencing.”

Dear Friends,

We’ll continue studying the nature of our Body, Mind, and Awareness by first noticing that’s Awareness is already here. We’re just caught up in experience and don’t realize it. We’ll review last week’s session, how to come back and know that Awareness is here, right now, through our body and mind. Now I’m aware of…

“We're usually... Lost in experience. We're caught up in what's happening. That's why we feel like we're not here. The practice we're doing is recognizing. I'm already here. Experience is already appearing. Can I just recognize that?”

“Welcoming the big energies…they move in the space of what? Awareness. �Awareness is not this little thing inside that you better make some space for these feelings. No, there's plenty of space. We just don't acknowledge it. The most distant sound that you can hear is appearing within awareness. �Awareness is very vast. Everything you see is appearing within awareness. There's plenty of space. �We're just used to... getting caught. When we get caught in something we narrow very quickly.”

‘I'm already here.” “And then you say, “And what's happening? �And can I include it in awareness. That's our practice, a meditation. I don't think I'm breathing. I'm aware of breathing.” ~ Quotes Above, Will Kabat-Zinn, The Sunday Sangha, 3/22/26
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03/17/2026

03/10/2026

ur LINK for all meetings: BodhiMind Center Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 896 2552 0695, Passcode: 202201
(and Button for Donations)


March 9, 2026

Dear BodhiMind Friends,

[See notices at the end for our next Book Group and
a local sangha's retreat in June]

We have been working on opening up, as best we can, to cultivating a state of body and mind that incorporates both an awareness of emptiness and a spirit of compassion. Awareness of emptiness is also called wisdom and it forms one of the two "wings" of the path along with compassion. Wisdom is the capacity to see in a direct and deep way that things (including people and ideas) lack any sort of independent, permanent, and findable core. They are all in flux, changing and dependent on various causes and conditions. When you look into something - no matter what it is - closely enough, you see that it's made of various parts, that it has not always existed, that it came to be from various causes and remains relatively stable (for some time) due to various conditions.

Yet all things eventually disappear, cease to be, and die. Right? So what were "they" while they were here? They did exist in some way... we can see them, touch them, etc. The things of our experience are not simply "illusions." And neither is our own person as an "experiencer" an illusion. It is entirely unproductive and even senseless to say that we do not exist. We are here sensing and doing and thinking, most all of the time. Something about this world of ours is real, right? Something exists...

Yes, something does. Buddhist tradition calls this "conventional" existence, or we might say "consensus reality." And the teaching that all things are empty does not deny this conventional reality. The teaching simply points to the fact that when you investigate - with your mind, your eyes, and the logic of your intellect - you cannot discover any sort of independent, unchanging essence of things. Every "thing" exists in a matrix or network of causes and conditions. No "thing" is just itself.

If a thing or person existed by its own power, by some sort of inherent identity that depended on nothing else and that never changed, then the world that we know could not possibly exist as it does.

Because the world we experience is an ever-changing one. Yesterday we had no flowers in our garden, but this morning there was a bright daffodil. It emerged from a combination of soil and warmth and water and sunlight - these elements brought a daffodil into being. And, within a few weeks, it will wilt and return to the elements.

Was it every really here? Of course it was. But it existed temporarily and dependently. There is no inherent "daffodil" core. If there were such a core, one that was an unchanging essence of "daffodil-ness," how could it come to be from dirt and water and sun? And how could an unchanging essence just disappear several days later?

So, Buddhist tradition says: Things exist but never independently or permanently. Their "existence" is always dependent and impermanent, lacking any trace of an enduring core.

Grasping this idea through words takes some effort. If one works on it, one can begin to see that it's true that everything is this way. We cannot find one thing anywhere that is an exception. Even a galaxy with billions of stars that has existed for billions of years had to come from something other than itself.

And it will not be here forever. This is the truth of emptiness. But as you can see, this truth does not erase the galaxies or their inhabitants. It just sheds a new light on how we "see" them, understand them, and engage with them.

And this is very importantly so for how we see and engage with the inhabitants, the sentient beings who come and go in this mysterious, multi-galactic universe of ours. We can open our eyes, our hearts, and our entire embodied being to see and feel that we are all together in this ever-changing flow that is never-not-empty yet always-feels-real.

To see, to experience, things and beings this way is to embody the "emptiness that is the womb of compassion."

Honestly, this is the Buddhist path - working in all the creative ways we can to embody wisdom and compassion together.


Come practice together.

David Gardiner

______________

In addition to our offerings this week, see at the bottom of today's message an announcement for the Open Heart Sangha's weekend retreat in June.

______________

All our in-person meetings are held from 6:00-8:00 pm at:

2955 Professional Place, Suite 101, Colorado Springs (belonging to the Hammond Law Group)

______________

TUESDAY, March 10th, 6 pm: In-person and by Zoom, with David Gardiner

TOPIC: Empiness as the Womb of Compassion

The image is of Guanyin (aka Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig)

The three above three names of this bodhisattva (some say Buddha) are, in order, from Chinese, Indian Sanskrit, and Tibetan. But they all refer to this "being" who embodies the seamless blending of perfect compassion with wisdom. And each of these traditions understands the image of Guanyin to represent our own true potential, our birthright: We naturally have within our minds/hearts/beings a capacity to manifest perfected compassion.

We will play with ways to manifest this together, even if only in small ways. Every effort we make opens the door toward full manifestation, baby step by baby step. The goal is not far away. It is intimately present in your own kind smile...
______

THURSDAY, March 12th, 6 pm: In-person and by Zoom, with Karen Recktenwald

TOPIC: Awareness Of Embodied Presence



“Emptiness is the womb of compassion.” ~ Nagarjuma, “Precious Rosary” (Ratnavali), 2nd Century)

“I think he means that when we begin to deepen our understanding of the fluidity and ungraspability of all things, both our intellect and our hearts soften. We cling less. We experience wonder and awe more. We are more patient. And probably more kind.” ~ David Gardiner, Commentary, BodhiMind Newsletter, 3/2/2026

Dear Spiritual Friends,

Coming back to Embodied Presence is necessary if we are to respond in a compassionate way to physical, verbal, emotional, and psychological challenging experiences. One way to define Embodied Presence is to be present to know our own experience, to feel and sense inwardly and outwardly, and to be able to see and connect with others. If we are not embodied, physical sensations can constantly push and pull us in random directions. Feeling tones and emotions can overwhelm us. Thoughts, moods and energies can shape and build the world we live in.

Coming back to Embodied Presence can mean feeling or sensing into the sensations in some part of our body. It could be the sensations in the nostrils, the chest, the abdomen, the bottoms of the feet, the hands, the throat, the fists, or wherever we can most easily actually feel them. We can also use the structure, “Now I’m Aware of.” Once we’re embodied again, depending on time, we can continue “Now I’m Aware of”, Breathe into the body or “Drop” into it. From there we can “Be”, “Wait”, and if needed, “Handshake” whatever comes into the field of awareness. We quiet habitual patterns of fixing, suppressing, ignoring and pushing away discomfort while we “Wait”. From this stable ground we can be soft or fierce, bare witness, and be good medicine for ourselves and others. Compassion becomes a natural response to the cries of ourselves and others.

“Simply let experience take place very freely, so that your open heart is suffused with the tenderness of true compassion.” ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche

“Essentially, handshake practice is to be fully aware of whatever is in you, especially feelings. If they have a story to tell, we just listen.” ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche & Daniel Goleman, Why We Meditate, ©2022

“The Buddhist goddess of compassion can teach us how to balance softness with fierceness and show us how bearing witness can be good medicine.” Quan Yin (also spelled Guanyin, Kuan Yin, or Kwan Yin) is “She Who Hears the Cries of the World…” ~ Julie Peters, Lessons from the Buddhist Goddess Quan Yin, Spirituality & Health, A Unity Publication

Announcement!

Retreat Announcement:

Drala Mountain Center, Colorado, 5 days in April 2026
What is Awakening, rooted in tradition and confirmed by neuroscience. With Tina Rasmussen; for more Info use this link! Email Karen ([email protected] with questions. I’ve studied with her.

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The BodhiMind Book Group is starting a new book, The Heroic Heart: Awakening Unbound Compassion by Tenzin Palmo, on March 11th. The group meets each Wednesday evening from 7:00 to 8:00.

The description of the book from Amazon: “A guidebook to making life meaningful by cultivating compassion, embracing adversity, and training the mind—from one of the foremost living Buddhist nuns. Freeing ourselves from our habitual emotional patterns starts with taming the mind. Through caring for others, you can walk the Buddhist path of bodhisattvas, becoming a spiritual hero of compassion. Based on the classic fourteenth-century mind training text of Tibetan Buddhism called the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, this guidebook shares pithy advice on how to act as bodhisattvas in our everyday lives, enabling us to possess compassion in an authentic way. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, an exemplary spiritual teacher who spent over a dozen years meditating in the Himalayas and one of the first Buddhist nuns to be ordained in the West, shares her reflections on this famous teaching and how to live a life of mindfulness and selflessness."

The book group is one hour on Zoom for ten weeks. To sign up for the book group, email the moderator Gary Reneau at [email protected]

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Register here for the June weekend retreat with the local Open Heart Sangha, Details below (and click the image at bottom to link to more info and to register).
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