Mangala Shri Bhuti - The Link

Speaker: Sarah Gomes. Sarah recounts how she met the Dharma through the writings of Pema Chödrön during a difficult period in her life. She experienced an immediate sense of meaning, particularly in the teaching that ‘within suffering lies the potential for transformation’. Sarah has been a student of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche for 24 years and supports the living presence of the Dharma at the Mangala Shri Bhuti Center, Guna Norling, in Salvador de Bahia. She holds a deep commitment to the practice of life release and is a founding member of the local animal protection sanctuary. She strives to bring the teachings into every aspect of her daily life, believing that the Dharma reveals its true power when it moves beyond intellectual understanding and reaches the heart, transforming our words, choices, and the way we engage with the world.

Speaker: Daisuke Inaba. Dai-san discusses his seva activities, the challenges they present, and his findings in working with challenges. He divides a period of service into beginning, middle, and end and offers methods for dealing with difficulties that arise at each stage. In the beginning, there is procrastination and distraction, which he overcomes by setting up a physical and mental environment supportive of service. In the middle, discursive thoughts arise, which he addresses with a breathing practice similar to shamatha. In the end, pride and arrogance "slowly and sneakily creep in", which he surmounts by dedicating the merit and appreciating the opportunity to serve. Dai-san offers this three-part method as a beneficial antidote to self-absorption and an aid to achieving happiness and confidence in seva.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la reflects on how the willingness to show up, especially with "a heart full of bodhicitta" is 60% of success in getting anything done in the Dharma. He relates the power of showing up to the five perfections, which are taught in a Tibetan medical text: place, teacher, teaching, assembly, and time. Dungse-la applies the five perfections to our upcoming gathering at NSS, but he also invokes the Thangtong Gyalpo prayer to demonstrate how the five perfections can be established in meditation practice.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This talk was originally given to the European sangha on September 16, 2024 as part of an online, weekend program called "Compassion Without Limit". The first of three talks aired on the LINK in August 2025 and the second in February 2026. This is the third and final talk from that program. Rinpoche describes how to put Compassion Without Limit into practice with the four immeasurables. He underscores the importance of merit and delves deeply into the "mindset of the Mahayana", which begins with a strong foundation in loving-kindess. Having cultivated this deeply, compassion, equanimity and sympathetic joy naturally unfold.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This talk was originally given to the European sangha on September 16, 2024 as part of an online, weekend program called "Compassion Without Limit". This is the final portion of the program's third talk which did not air as a live LINK, but is made available on the podcast to complete the third talk, which aired on June 7, 2026.

Speakers: Junglan Bang. Junglan recalls watching a documentary of an old man climbing mountains in China. When asked why he did it, he smiled and said he was, "...doing it for the happiness of all sentient beings". Carrying that old man's smile in her heart, Junglan went on to study Buddhism and particularly the four immeasurables practice, with equanimity as the first immeasurable. She notes that ‘when mind falls into equanimity filters fall away, and this is the foundation of what makes all other steps possible.'

Speakers: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel. Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel speaks with her teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, about the paramita of patience. A common misconception is that patience is a passive ability to "grin and bear it" or to endure suppressed anger. Rather, it is better understood as a creative and active way of working with the mind. Patience becomes a kind of inner armor, protecting us from afflictive states such as pain and aggression. Rinpoche describes it as "the ability not to be bothered"—a quality of non-reactivity that, when cultivated, invites grace and opens us to the experience of unconditional well-being and universal love.

Speaker: Peter Lauritzen. Peter reflects on the meaning of refuge in a time of personal and global disruption. He discusses how meditation on the four thoughts that turn the mind toward the Dharma offers a true refuge and lasting protection from anxiety, distress, and distraction. Cultivating the four thoughts is particularly helpful as a way to orient the mind on compassion and the law of cause and effect, or karma.

Speaker: Aline Gomes. As a member of MSB Brazil, Aline joins her sangha's regular efforts to release crabs and other animals back into the wild. More than 200,000 beings have been freed to date. Today's LINK illuminates the practice of life release as a direct and tangible expression of aspiration and application bodhicitta. Aline describes how saving a life moves practice beyond the theoretical into the living, visceral field of experience. Life release becomes a direct way to cultivate the six perfections: generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, concentration and wisdom. In caring for beings on the threshold of death, practitioners encounter the generative qualities of intention and motivation and also directly penetrate the nature of cause and effect.

Speaker: Bob Reid. Bob explores bodhicitta and the heart practice of the four immeasurables. He shares an approach he learned from Pema Chödron that enables him to work with the difficult tendencies of self-aggression and lack of warmth towards his own experience. In this approach, one begins with loving kindness towards oneself instead of loved ones. He further describes how the four links can be supportive in cultivating bodhicitta. The fourth link of prayer has been particularly helpful in cultivating a tender heart of ‘tsewa’- the sincere wish for beings to find peace and liberation. Bob concludes that bodhicitta is the heart of the whole path and therefore reminds us that we can turn our everyday experiences into a paramita practice and thus become a bodhisattva.

Speaker: Sharon Lukert. Sharon explores how the Buddha's teachings on birth, old age, sickness, and death can be brought directly into the lived experience of illness. Sickness brings us into intimate contact with our deepest attachment, which is the body itself. Drawing on her lived experience with Alzheimer's disease, Sharon shares how she has adapted her Dharma practice in response to this diagnosis. As outer cognitive capacities diminish, illness offers a deeper recognition of impermanence, and a tender cultivation of compassion for herself and others. She offers a line from the great Dzogchen master Jigme Lingpa for our contemplation: "Do not place the sickness on your mind, but place your naked intrinsic awareness upon your sickness."

Speaker: Kate Keach. Kate reflects on the challenges of walking the path of daily practice. Following Rinpoche's new ngöndro parameters, she experimented for two months with establishing a consistent daily practice. Kate reads from the journal she kept during that period and shares her three biggest challenges: waiting for inspiration, preferences and concepts, and focusing on just one thing. She acknowledges spiritual friends at MSB who have supported her aspiration to connect with ngöndro and practice to her heart's content.

Speaker: Wendy Conquest. Wendy shares her process of discovering equanimity, the first step toward a mind poised for bodhicitta. The wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings is challenging. It requires acknowledging the equality between ourselves and others in our shared wish for happiness. Authentic concern for all beings is the heart of the practice and the key to dissolving self-centered mind. Through mindful introspection, Wendy was able to shift from equanimity as a concept to directly experiencing it as bodhicitta, allowing her to see beings as they are, expand the heart, and acknowledge the essential equality of all beings.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la discusses a phrase he recently heard from a fellow Dharma teacher: "The mark of a good student is when they have fallen in love with the Dharma". This resonated strongly with him because he sees Dharma as the way we are in relationship with the world. It addresses the positive transformation of mind that is cultivated through the study and practice of Dharma. He describes the feeling of great expansion and gratitude that stem from the recognition of one's own inner transformation as a feeling of being in love with the world.

Speaker: Ambika Samarthya-Howard. Ambika shares her journey of balancing a devotional Buddhist path with her life as a filmmaker, activist, and working mother. She introduces the concept of "holding it lightly" as an antidote to overwhelm, focusing on maintaining connection rather than forcing a sense of letting go. By integrating study, practice, and service into family life, she demonstrates that spiritual growth and daily obligations are not separate but part of a unified whole. She encourages practitioners to embrace spontaneity and the pace of ease, viewing life's inherent challenges as natural parts of an obstacle course rather than burdens.

Speaker: Amy Wallace. Amy describes her experience of unobscured world as that which is revealed when nothing is pushed away. Sharing her poetry and her lived experience of intense loss and grief, she explores how we can stay close to direct experience even in the midst of "the raw scene of now". When we sit in awareness with what is happening at the moment, when we are willing to stay present with what hurts, when grasping and aversion soften even for a moment, then the ever-present, unobscured world reveals itself. She describes this as a place where wisdom, compassion and awareness reside.

Speaker: Suzy Greanias. Suzy calls to mind significant guides on her spiritual path and urges listeners to reflect on, and rest in the presence of their guides. She shares two guideposts that serve as her personal "lines of defense" against inner obscurations and suffering: 1) the problem is not outside, and 2) appearances don't bind you; your shenpa binds you. Underlying these guideposts are the fundamentals of Buddhism- bodhicitta and buddhanature.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Speaking from New Delhi at the start of the MSB Dana Pilgrimage, Dungse-la explains that the journey is not about comfort or sightseeing but about transforming perception. By stepping outside familiar environments and accepting discomfort and uncertainty, practitioners learn to let go of preferences and see beyond assumptions. What's revealed is there nothing to fix in the outer world with its constantly changing causes and conditions. Real change comes from training the mind: resting in uncertainty, cultivating compassion and releasing attachment to comfort, status and control. When the mind changes, our experience of the world changes with it.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This is a rebroadcast of a talk given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche to the local sangha on January 5, 2014 at Osel Ling in Crestone, Colorado. Rinpoche describes the wish for happiness that all beings share, that when stripped down to its very basic form, awakens our tender heart and increases our sensitivity as we move out of our bubble of self-absorption toward a sense of universal responsibility. From the perspective of Buddhist teachings, this is the meaning of true happiness.

Speaker: Tara Di Gesu. Tara draws our attention to Dzigar Kongtrul's teaching on "the saddened heart that recognizes the futility of seeking happiness in samsara." She explores how chyoshe, or ‘unconditioned sadness’ as described by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, holds profound potential. Chyoshe may arise when we notice that we have not followed through on our intentions. When we recognize this sense of being lost and allow ourselves to surrender to the genuine heart of sadness within us, it offers something precious. Rather than imparting a sense a failure, chyoshe reminds us to identify with our deepest intentions rather than with our obscurations. It can open us to genuine joy on the path and strengthen our determination to be free.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la emphasizes the responsibilities and benefits of uplifting our internal world and cultivating "sweet" relationships with others and the world. He reflects on how this practice of setting a positive tone in our mind aligns with the Dharma because it involves letting go of grudges, heaviness, and ego-clinging. Anticipating the Year of the Fire Horse, Dungse-la concludes: "We are always foremost working with our internal world, and we have the power to set that world on fire in a positive or negative way."

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This talk was originally given to an online, European audience on September 15, 2024 as part of a weekend program, "Compassion Without Limit". The first of three talks aired on the LINK in August 2025. This is the second talk from that program and it is split into two parts for rebroadcast on February 1 and 8, 2026. In this second part, Rinpoche explains how to get beyond habitual mind and emotions through examination of the sixth consciousness and attachment to the self.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This talk was originally given to an online, European audience on September 15, 2024 as part of a weekend program, "Compassion Without Limit". The first of three talks aired on the LINK in August 2025. This is the second talk from that program and it is split into two parts for rebroadcast on February 1 and 8, 2026. In this first part, Rinpoche begins by describing the origins of clinging to a sense of self and the attachments, emotions and karma that arise from that. He then decribes the path to nirvana and bliss.

Speaker: Alice Gormley. Alice discusses the importance of the four immeasurables practice in her life. She expresses deep gratitude for the ability to connect remotely, which has allowed her to maintain a connection to the Dharma and precious family members. She marvels at all of the modern methods that keep us connected, assuring the listener that it is possible to have meaningful conversation from afar.

Speaker: Nicholas Carter. "We are all moving towards death". With this fundamental recognition, Nick contemplates how the Dharma offers meaning, purpose, and direction in aging and death. He acknowledges the profound inspiration he has received from older women in his life who are aging with clarity and courage. Nick emphasizes how strength in Dharma practice brings contentment, allowing us to surrender to our lives and embrace aging. Furthermore, he points to mindfulness and vigilant introspection as essential practices that bring clarity of mind and the capacity to be present as we age in the Dharma.

Speaker: Katsutoshi Okabayashi. Oka-san uses "closing shop" as a metaphor for letting go, and "preparing to open" as a means of finding freedom through gratitude. Though sadness may arise from facing endings, openness dawns, which brings joy and natural cheerfulness. This is achieved by working with the mind daily, to continually let go with appreciation and welcome the future. Oka-san finds that the four immeasurables practice reveals how fragile and unsteady the mind is, particularly when pride arises. Pride's corresponding belief is that everything is achievable through personal will and effort. Relying on the help and support of others, one can step out of this self-centered state. When we recognize that our existence is the result of the care, guidance, and generosity of others, especially our parents, gratitude naturally arises.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la emphasizes the importance of reflection as we enter into a new year. It is, "the time to take time" to bear witness to what has unfolded and to allow that experience to shape our aspirations for the future. As we enter 2026 and the Year of the Fire Horse, we are invited to renew our connection to the Dharma and recommit ourselves to the bodhisattva vow. The key is simply to show up with an open heart and an open mind to whatever arises, like the lotus opening in the middle of a swamp. From this space, he encourages us to set strong, bold aspirations to fulfill that vow in the year ahead.

Speaker: Sasha Dorje Meyerowitz. While gathering information for one of Rinpoche's books, ‘It's Up To You’, Sasha describes the profound impact that revisiting past teachings on ignorance had on him- "an openness to a new way of being". Sasha realized that ignorance and buddhanature are two sides of the same coin. The root cause of suffering is ignorance, and because it is universal, it is not personal. This dispels the urge to blame ourselves. Buddhanature is our true nature, obscured by ignorance. Ignorance stems from grasping to self and dissolving that attachment sets us on the path to freedom. Sasha offers a few practices that assist in moving away from ignorance toward the call of our true nature.

Speaker: Jill Oppenheimer. Jill reflects on how clarity of intention and confidence in practice unveil the causes of happiness and suffering. She analyzes three primary obstacles to clarity and stability of mind: ego-clinging, lack of enthusiasm, and internet use. She emphasizes the antidotal qualities of developing confidence in buddhanature, cultivating joy through the care of others, and setting the intention not to waste precious time. Jill concludes with a poetic reflection: "Joy is riding the waves of my mind, enthusiasm is the wind in my sails, and intention is the clear map to my destination".

Speaker: Mary Albrittain. Mary shares a number of personal experiences that have allowed her to bring suffering onto the path of awakening. Having faced profound loss, including the deaths of loved ones and health issues of her own, Mary meets these experiences with curiosity and compassion. She asks, "How do I transform suffering into awakening? How do I meet what is inevitable with care?" Suffering can bring us to our knees, not in defeat but in supplication, transforming how we live, love, and see the world.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la discusses Dharmic investments in mind and meritorious action. He discusses the unexamined premise of investing in external factors that we believe will bring us closer to our goal of obtaining happiness and being free from suffering. Dungse-la examines the basis of a good investment from external and internal perspectives, capping the discussion on investing in merit, the best long-term investment strategy of all.

Speaker: Vanessa Waxman. "Be content! Be content! Be content!". That is what Rinpoche told her. Vanessa shares her reflections on advice from her guru and the art of being content. She begins by contemplating how one stays in the present moment, remaining content, when one is anxious about the next unknown future event. How does one come to know, 'the grass is greener right here, right now'? By examining the teachings and the lessons she has learned from practice, Vanessa shares experiences in examining her own habitual thinking.

Speaker: Bill Roberts. Using the first and second noble truth as a starting point, Bill talks about the deep fear of failure and unrelenting anxiety that overshadowed his career as an actor. Offering his experience as a window into the workings of ego, Bill states that until we choose to boycott the demands of this indefatigable tyrant, even spiritual practice can become a place where we perform the drama of failure. Two helpful practices are bodhicitta and "putting the mind of fear in the cradle of loving kindness", which become an endless offering to the world: not to fix, save or even help, but to allow the heart's openness to express itself as love.

Speaker: Jen Kern. Jen reflects on maitri aspiration and how it leads to warm-hearted courage and "buddhanature self esteem". She contemplates two profound questions related to maitri that came up after recent talks given by Rinpoche: "Why am I still putting up walls of protection and closing down when I aspire to expand?" "How am I shirking my responsibility to self-reflect, be present with fear, and shine a light on obscurations?" Jen discovered that her fear of self-cherishing resulted in a failure to direct loving-kindness to herself, which then became an obstacle to feeling genuine compassion and open-heartedness. Reflecting on the benefits of "placing the fearful mind in the loving cradle of maîtri", she leads listeners in a loving-kindness practice that starts with oneself.

Speaker: Fredi Kaufmann. Fredi reflects on how language shapes experience and spiritual growth. Words are creative forces- our inner and outer speech manifest reality. Cultivating kind, compassionate self-talk supports well being and transformation. On the Buddhist path, mantra recitation is a sacred language, which becomes a means of transformation. Mantras hold vibrational power beyond meaning. Repetition of mantras or prayers calms the mind, aligns us with deep aspiration, and reveals the mind's nature. Over time, repetition rewires thought patterns and allows sacred words to surface in daily life, aligning us with deep wisdom and compassion.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously-recorded teaching was originally given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche to the Sangha on December 6, 2015 in Crestone, Colorado. Rinpoche extensively explains the meaning of four famous lines from the Sakya tradition that address being a spiritual practitioner, renunciation, bodhicitta and the ultimate view.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously-recorded LINK was the third teaching of a weekend program called, "Breeze of Simplicity", given to the Naropa University student body by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel in October 2012. Part 1 aired on the September 21st LINK, and included an introduction to shamatha and calm abiding practice. Part 2 aired on September 28th where Rinpoche introduced the five (5) obstacles and the eight (8) antidotes. Today's teaching includes the nine (9) ways of resting.

Speaker: Rebecca Henry. Having recently lost her father, Rebecca shares poignant memories through poetry and verse on the profound love she and her dad shared. She immediately saw the many ways her father had been training her throughout her life to become a practitioner. Rebecca shares that his passing and what they shared in the final days was a most precious training that exemplified confidence, spontaneous presence, unpredictability and proving that living does not need to make sense.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Generally speaking, we tend to separate our spiritual practice from the rest of our life, especially when the demands of a busy life set in. Dungse-la encourages us to bring Dharma into our life holistically. He also discusses the disparate impact that negative thinking has on our minds compared to positive thinking. Oftentimes what becomes a habitual tendency begins without much thought, such as scrolling on our phones. Unraveling from this requires time, clarity and intention to improve our life, specifically our internal life. As we become free from neurotic emotions and ego-grasping, our life becomes free, and our ongoing circumstances improve because we are now moving in a positive direction. The trick is to keep moving. As practitioners, we are not seeking temporary experiences; we are seeking complete and total freedom.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously-recorded LINK was the second teaching of a weekend program that was given to the Naropa University student body by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel in October 2012. In Part 2, Rinpoche gave detailed instructions on shamatha meditation including the five (5) obstacles and the eight (8) antidotes.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously-recorded LINK was the first teaching of a weekend program that was given to the Naropa University student body by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel in October 2012. Part 1 included an introduction to shamatha and calm abiding as a practice that Buddhism offers to the world at large.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This is a recorded reading of notes taken from a LINK talk given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche on September 14, 2025.

Speaker: Bob Reid. Following up on two LINKs from August 2024, Bob talks about the four immeasurables practice with a focus on loving-kindness. He describes loving-kindness as the sense of care, warmth and tenderness that we feel towards others in our life as well as to ourselves. He goes on to explain how it is the care towards oneself that is particularly difficult for westerners who have become accustomed to a competitive culture based on comparison and critique. Bob stresses how we all equally wish for happiness and to obtain the causes and conditions of happiness. He suggests we can be curious and investigate with an open mind when thoughts of being hard on ourselves arise, allowing ourselves to be fully present with our minds while also not believing our thoughts. Finally, as practitioners, we can open our hearts to the three jewels and surrender to Guru Rinpoche. In doing so our heart can recognize that our nature is the same as the deity's.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This two-hour talk, originally given on September 14, 2024 to an online, European audience was split into two parts for rebroadcast on August 24 and 31, 2025. In this second part, Rinpoche explains that as we begin to have some objectivity towards our suffering and recognize the causes of it, we can find a tremendous sense of compassion for ourselves and others, and wisdom begins to dawn.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This two-hour talk, originally given on September 14, 2024 to an online, European audience was split into two parts for rebroadcast on August 24 and 31, 2025. In this first part, Rinpoche begins by saying that in order to cultivate compassion, we must first recognize, open up to and understand our own suffering. This involves looking more deeply and clearly at our fears, our guilt, the desire to be perfect and the habit of indulging our emotions.

Speaker: Michael Velasco. Michael recounts the early days of becoming a student of Mangala Shri Bhuti, and a series of auspicious coincidences he encountered before meeting his teacher. Unsuspecting of what was to come, Michael shares how he has been the beneficiary of myriad opportunities to fully enter the path including pilgrimages, living in India and spending his life in service. He expresses deep gratitude for how fully the Dharma has transformed his life through the extraordinary generosity of his teacher's efforts to "increase his capacity" over the years. Having been given these gifts, including the gift of self-reflection, he realizes he can now relax into the tremendous opportunity to transform his mind on this noble path of the Bodhisattva.

Speaker: Joey Waxman. Joey reflects on Rinpoche's book, It's Up to You, asking why we resist seeing ourselves as ordinary. We cling to self-importance seeking comfort, resources, and reputation while fearing loss, discomfort, or criticism. This clinging arises from the belief in a fixed self. If dismantled, we uncover our Buddha-nature, which is the same as the Buddha's, and see our connection to all beings, even insects, without hierarchy. When obscurations fall away, we gain the freedom to benefit others with creativity and joy. The path begins with self-reflection: look deeply in the mirror and you may discover you are gazing at the body of a Buddha.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse Jampal Norbu examines how we let go of holding onto principles and concepts in order to enter into an authentic relationship with how things appear, and therefore act from a place of harmony. Investment in our personal principles and ideas can become neurotic, preventing us from relating with a flexible frame of mind to the interdependent nature of our experience. For example, in valuing generosity, we might expect it to be reflected in the world around us in a particular way. Dungse-la encourages us to be uncompromising with our ego attachments and value bodhicitta as a basic principle, which provides us with a skillful means to respond to life's specific situations.

Speaker: Polly Banerjee-Gallagher. Polly explores how deeply-rooted habits can block our ability to appreciate the blessings of practice. Drawing from Rinpoche's book Diligence and teachings from the 2023 Shedra, Polly discusses the four key factors shaping positive and negative habits. She explains their fluid and dynamic nature and our power to change them. The Dharma offers tools like Lojong slogans, prayer and mantras to support this work. Polly concludes the talk with a reflection on the Four Reliances of the Kadampa tradition, highlighting their guidance in cultivating habits that support our Dharmic journey.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. In this LINK, originally given on February 5, 2017 from Crestone, Colorado, Rinpoche explains how we can cultivate happiness though the practice of bodhicitta and serving others.