Irena Danys
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My remote workstation is a standing desk that is set up in our daylight basement. It faces the thin horizontal window which provides a remarkably lovely view of nature because the lawn slopes down suddenly. On this window ledge are pictures of my spiritual “team”. Padmasambhava watches over me as does my heart mentor, Khandro Tsering Chodron. Roshi Joan Halifax, Thich Nhat Hanh, and HH the Dalai Lama are all smiling at me too.
Thank you to Susan for all of the brilliant teaching and to all of the participants in this wonderful program, so much open heartedness and kindness!
What lovely and expressive photos, Brenda and Penelope. A great way to communicate the energetic feeling that is so hard to put into words (at least for me).
Joell, thank you for explaining your connection to padma and sharing your experiences. So very sorry to hear about your recent surgery, complication, and pain. Keeping you in my practice, may your healing ultimately be complete, and may it be as speedy as possible.
Like you and Penelope, the Padma energy calls to me. My heart sings as the sun starts to descend in the west and send a golden glow over the late afternoon, and each sunset feels like magic.
Really wishing I could grab some Karma energy, in one of my sources it is described as all accomplishing and fearless! Maybe tomorrow…
Thank you Matt and Maureen for sharing your thoughts.
I have been struggling with a difficult working partnership that was good in 2020 and 2021 and progressively deteriorated in 2022 and 2023. So many creative solutions for resolving the problems. So much energy and time consumed in it. Reflecting on the pacify, enrich, magnetize, destroy framework, I can clearly see how the thoughts, words, and actions evolved along those very lines. I have been very distraught/unsettled for the last 6 months, because it has been clear that dissolving the partnership is the way forward. So there is a strange kind of comfort in reviewing the whole process, and framing it in the context of the four karmas.My practice has been to be with the Heart Sutra, through reading it or listening to it. Sometimes a word or phrase will float up to be the subject of tentative investigation. I do not believe I have the words nor the expertise to go deeply into the core of this teaching, but perhaps I can soften enough to open to experience it. I appreciated Susan telling her story. I am enjoying the sessions, the material, reading the interesting comments of others (I so far haven’t quite figured out how to add a comment, I apologize for that) and meeting my fellow students in the break out rooms.
Compassion turned out to be my lineage, as my sacred space and altar evolved this week. Statues of the Buddha, Kuan Yin, Frere Andre and pictures of Khandro Tsering Chodron, Guru Rinpoche, with other pictures of the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn, Roshi Joan Halifax, and the prayer cards that I create for those in desperate need. Offering with lighting a scented candle helped to anchor the intention, as well as to ensure the dedication, which is done before the candle is put out.
Greetings from Irena in Gilford, New Hampshire! The sun is shining and there is a symphony of birds entertaining me as I sit in the parking lot of my husband’s doctor. What a glorious moment! Ok, perhaps you should know that I am often accused of pathologic optimism. Frankly, there are many worse conditions to endure. Tibetan Buddhism found me during my teen years when I became an avid reader, sent me to Tibet in 1986, invited me to become a serious student of Sogyal Rinpoche and member of the Rigpa Sangha, and then has provided me with a great deal of material for practice since summer 2017, the beginning of a unfolding spiritual implosion among other things. I am deeply grateful for Susan’s efforts to share the teachings and feel so privileged to be part of this amazing group of people!