Dzigar Kongtrul

An exploration of diligence, the essential quality to inspire joy and openheartedness for Buddhist practice and daily life, from renowned Buddhist teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This book contributes the first commentary on the diligence chapter from Shantideva's 8th-century classic The Way of the Bodhisattva. While many books have explored his celebrated chapter on wisdom, diligence has been overlooked. As one of the six paramitas or perfections that are fundamental for following the bodhisattva path and helping others, diligence can profoundly impact our lives. The highly acclaimed Buddhist teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche guides us through the depth and complexity of Shantideva's teachings with his characteristic buoyant energy and clear, accessible writing. With over three decades of teaching on the subject, Dzigar Kongtrul illuminates how diligence is the inner quality that inspires us to engage with the world and, most importantly, with our own mind. It's the inner vigor that sparks enthusiasm despite difficulty, the dynamic armor that protects against laziness, and the inner strength that aims to meet the world with joy and openheartedness. Shantideva explains that diligence is the energy that flows through all the paramitas--it's the wind that keeps us moving toward the goal of liberation and benefiting others. Within the heart of every bodhisattva is a bursting sense of tenderness, peace, intelligence, and joy--which is inherent in the quality of diligence. In this book, Dzigar Kongtrul explores traditional teachings on diligence, such as the three kinds of laziness, the Four Immeasurables, the two strengths, rebirth, the nature of emptiness, and dependent origination. Joy is the continuous thread woven through this time-honored wisdom that will aid us throughout our lives whether in formal practice or our day-to-day interactions with an ever-changing world. With diligence, we will overcome laziness and succeed in all our meaningful endeavors.

An introductory guide to cultivating patience and opening your heart to difficult circumstances from leading Buddhist teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. Patience is one of the most important qualities we can develop, as it represents our mind's ability to work positively with anything that bothers us, including anger, loss, jealousy, and helplessness. We are consistently confronted with situations or outcomes we weren't expecting or didn't want, and our default response is to reject what happened with feelings of mild irritation, inward complaining, self-aggression, or seething resentment. Patience is an antidote to all these forms of rejection. Those who have mastered patience have learned to welcome all challenging situations, people, and emotions as opportunities to open their hearts rather than close them. Based on the teachings of the sixth chapter of Shantideva's The Way of the Bodhisattva, Peaceful Heart explores how Buddhist teachings on patience can help you work with whatever disturbances arise in your life and in your mind. Dzigar Kongtrul provides practices and examples throughout the book to challenge readers on the path to developing a more patient heart.

Best Spirituality Books of 2018 - Spirituality & Practice A little guide to cultivating tsewa the loving warmth of heart from which the awakened mind arises--from the popular Buddhist teacher and author of The Intelligent Heart. This is a call to a revolution of heart. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is taught that one of the most essential qualities of enlightenment is tsewa, a form of warm energy and openness of heart. It is the warmth we express and receive through empathy with others, especially those closest to us. In this compact gem of a book, Dzigar Kongtrul opens the door to this life-changing energy and shows us how to transform our attitude toward ourselves and those around us through its practice. And through its practice, we can actually heal our fractured world. This is a guide to the building blocks of compassion and the purest and deepest form of happiness. And with these tools, we can awaken the most powerful force in the world--a tender, open heart.

Practical instruction in a Tibetan Buddhist method for developing radical compassion--from a contemporary master with a gift for making the ancient teachings speak to modern hearts. Dzigar Kongtr l's lively and accessible presentation of the Tibetan training method known as lojong (mind training) focuses on what he considers the heart of that practice: tonglen, the practice of exchanging self for other, for taking in others' pain and suffering and sending out kindness, ease, and consolation. It's a powerful method for developing compassion of the most tranformative kind, and its supreme expression is found in the classic text The Great Path of Awakening by Jamgon Kongtr l. This book is Dzigar Kongtr l's commentary on that beloved text, based on a series of talks he gave on it. It includes his fresh translation of the Great Path, and it is full of his characteristic humor as well as his skill in translating esoteric concepts into terms that not only are easily understood but that speak directly to the heart.

Buddhahood, says Dzigar Kongtr l, is nothing but an unobstructed experience of the nature of mind, boundlessly spacious and limitlessly compassionate. The trick is that in order to see the mind accurately, we must use the particular aspect of mind he calls natural intelligence. Natural intelligence enables us to discriminate between what helps or hinders us. But most of all, it's the part of us that searches for happiness and meaning. In Light Comes Through, he shows us how to skillfully use our wish for happiness as a tool in awakening to the joyous wisdom of mind.

On the spiritual path we speak of enlightenment. But how do we reconcile the idea of enlightenment with what we see when we look in the mirror--when insecurities, doubts, and self-centered tendencies arise in our minds? Dzigar Kongtr l suggests that we need not feel "doomed" when these experiences surface. In fact, such experiences are not a problem if we are able to simply let them arise without judging them or investing them with so much meaning. This approach to experience is what Kongtr l calls self-reflection. Self-reflection is a practice, a path, and an attitude. It is the spirit of taking an interest in that which we usually try to push away. When we practice self-reflection we take liberation into our own hands and accept the challenge and personal empowerment in Kongtr l's title: it's up to you.