We hope you enjoy today’s soundbite in which Doug Qapel Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei respond to an insight shared by a participant after he had a breakout room conversation with other people in the class.
Catherine Sensei will be leading a breathing retreat at the beautiful Clear Sky Center in May. This is an opportunity for practitioners of any level to deepen their connection to this powerful practice, guided by a world-class teacher, in person or virtually. Sensei will be fresh off her own 3-month personal cabin retreat, jumping back into teaching to lead this retreat on the practices from the Ānāpānasati Sutta, the Mindfulness of Breathing Discourse. You can learn more and register at planetdharma.com/breathing.
Podcast Transcription:
Welcome to the Planet Dharma bonus episode. We hope you enjoyed today’s sound bite in which Doug (Qapel) Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat. What Sensei responded to an insight shared by a participant after he had a conversation with other people in the class during a breakout session:
“As we were talking in the group of five, I recognize I fell into a preference for seeing the clear side of the prism rather than what the clear light becomes when it acts in the world. But theoretically, I don’t think that’s true, is it? I mean, it’s like there’s no preference at all, it’s what is. And I’m seeing that this preference is there.”
I don’t know if that’s a comment or it’s a question – if it’s a comment, we agree. If it’s a question we would say you’re clinging to happiness because you have some aversion or dissatisfaction with the world of objects. But from the point of view of the teaching of course forming…
Emptying is forming; forming is emptying in the forming. There’s emptiness and in the emptiness, there’s forming. There are just two sides to the same coin. So I think maybe what you want to do is you want to bring a little Milarepa in – as in “I am the great happiness” and sort of bring your joy, your joy and your love of form and desire, mind and object back in the game as a kind of play of the universe.
See it as Maya’s great illusion rather than an oppressive thing that you’ve got to handle. Yeah, and I know you’re familiar with this, but for people who are less so, this is part of the Bodhisattva’s vow to manifest in this world of illusion in this world of form and help bring the sense of spaciousness and light and emptiness to that, to help alleviate suffering for the benefit of all beings.
That’s very good. So if we happen to be your teachers and we don’t claim that and we don’t assume that you claim it either. But if we happened to be your teachers, we would probably encourage you to get involved. Help dharma, so Dharma Europe becomes more robust and vibrant and grows the dharma for the Namgyal lineage. Namgyal Rinpoche was indubitably a master teacher, and the more his message can get out through us, the better for humanity.
We hope you enjoyed today’s sound bite. Catherine Sensei will be leading a breathing retreat at the beautiful clear sky centre in May. This is an opportunity for practitioners of any level to deepen their connection to this powerful practice, guided by a world-class teacher in person or virtually Sensei will be fresh off her three-month personal cabin retreat, jumping back into teaching to lead this retreat on the practices from the Anapanasati sutta and the mindfulness of breathing discourse to the mindfulness of breathing discourse, You can learn more and register at planet dot com slash breathing.
Okay, see you next time, and may all our efforts benefit all beings.
