Sangdo Palri Temple of Wisdom and Compassion

03/24/2022

The temple in the early afternoon of an early spring day.

03/29/2021

Guru Rinpoche.

10/14/2020

Freshly poured driveway. Stunning!

10/14/2020

Pouring the driveway.

10/08/2020

More work on pouring the sidewalk.

10/08/2020

More work on the sidewalk.

10/08/2020

We are pouring a paved driveway that will lead past the Tara Dzong up close to the Sangdo Palri Temple to create an elegant (and less dusty!) entranceway. Today we began with the curb.

10/05/2020

10/04/2020

Rinpoche teaching in the Avalokiteshvara shrine room on the Temple’s second floor in the first full day of the MSB Shedra, studying the Sword of Wisdom by the great Jamgon Miipam Rinpoche, with commentary by Khenchen Sherap Palden and translated by Ann Helm.

10/01/2020

Rinpoche meeting with Dana and Tak to discuss how to paint the Four Dignities on the gate that will be built for the Tara Dzong.

09/21/2020

Placing rocks at the entrance to the Tara Dzong near the Coil of Joy.

09/16/2020

Posted • Looking for ego-mind is very important. This is the only way to know that it can’t be found. And if we can’t find ego-mind, we can’t find a self—so how can we take all our thoughts, emotions, and experiences so personally?
I remember my first experience of selflessness. I felt a strong sense of freedom and a deep appreciation of how fundamentally perfect things could be if I didn’t let my self importance get in the way and complicate everything. I felt relieved to bring to light all my useless efforts to maintain a self.
People tend to appreciate nature. We associate the natural world with beauty, that which is pure and untouched. When we see someone cutting trees or digging in the wilderness, it disturbs us. We can realize the beauty of our own inner nature when we stop manipulating everything that crosses our path as a way to fortify a sense of self. This is a practitioner’s approach to life.
If you think about it, when we grasp to a self, how can we possibly practice self-reflection? Everything becomes personal: our pain, our anger, our shortcomings. When we take thoughts and emotions personally, they torture us. Looking at our thoughts and emotions in this way is like rubbing our nose in something unpleasant—what purpose does it serve other than to create more pain? This is not the kind of looking we are speaking of here.
With the view of selflessness, we can enjoy whatever arises in our awareness. We can accept that everything that arises is a result of our past actions, or karma, but it is not who we are.
~Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche