Lama Tsomo
Lama Tsomo (Linda Pritzker), one of the first American women ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist lama, discusses her journey from a conventional life to deep Buddhist practice. She shares insights into Tibetan meditation techniques, the lama-student relationship, and her understanding of enlightenment.
Deep Dive Analysis
16 Topic Outline
Lama Tsomo's Path from Pritzker to Spiritual Teacher
Understanding Dukkha: The Nature of Suffering and Unsatisfactoriness
Lama Tsomo's Early Meditation and Search for a Teacher
Meeting Her Tibetan Teacher, Tukusangak Rinpoche
Exploring Different Buddhist Traditions: Theravada, Zen, and Vajrayana
The Profound Student-Teacher Relationship and Reincarnation
Subjective Experience, Objective Reality, and Trust in Inner Knowing
The Transformative Power of Long Retreats and Immersion
Earning the Title of Lama and the Significance of a Refuge Name
Introduction to Vajrayana Practices: The Tibetan Nose Blow
The Role of Visualization and Archetypes in Tibetan Buddhism
Dong Lin (Tonglen): A Practice for Cultivating Compassion
Defining Enlightenment and the Path of Spiritual Progress
The 'Ocean and Waves' Analogy for Interconnectedness
Dan Harris's Motivation for Deep Meditation Practice
The Dalai Lama's Smile as a Manifestation of Practice
7 Key Concepts
Dukkha
An ancient Pali word often translated as suffering, but more accurately describes the 'baked-in insufficiency of life' or the inherent unsatisfactoriness that arises from latching onto impermanent things and trying to avoid what we dislike.
Tulku
A Tibetan title referring to a reincarnated lama, indicating that a spiritual teacher has been recognized as the rebirth of a previous enlightened master.
Rinpoche
A Tibetan title meaning 'precious one' or 'master teacher,' often used for high lamas or respected spiritual teachers.
Mind and Life Foundation
A consortium of scientists who collaborate with the Dalai Lama to research the impact of contemplative practices on the mind and brain, bridging objective scientific study with subjective inner experience.
Vajrayana Buddhism
The Tibetan tradition of Buddhism, characterized by its use of diverse practices including mantras, breath awareness, and extensive visualization, often employing archetypes for deep transformation.
Bodhisattva
Literally meaning 'one who has a mind of awakening,' it refers to an awakened individual who is motivated to help others and acts as a powerful force for good, possessing both great wisdom and compassion.
Enlightenment (Sanje)
Defined in Tibetan as 'clearing away and maturing or bringing forth,' it means completely clearing away all distraction and habitual mental patterns to fully bring forth one's pure, true nature.
10 Questions Answered
Dukkha, often translated as suffering, more accurately refers to the 'baked-in insufficiency of life' or the inherent unsatisfactoriness that arises from clinging to impermanent things and resisting what we dislike.
Despite pursuing happiness and trying to avoid suffering, her life had angst, and she felt she wasn't navigating life skillfully, leading her to seek a deeper path to happiness and understanding.
Lama Tsomo silently created an aspiration to find an accomplished teacher who understood the scholarly tradition and was good at teaching, eventually meeting Tukusangak Rinpoche.
It is a profound and intimate relationship, often believed to span lifetimes, and is distinct from romantic or familial bonds, serving as a deep guide for spiritual development.
When the mind is trained to be more stable through practices like meditation, the insights gained from subjective investigation can become more reliable and trustworthy.
Total immersion helps to rapidly change mental habits and re-route neural pathways, similar to how immersion helps in learning a foreign language, leading to significant leaps in practice.
Visualization is extensively used because the brain behaves similarly when visualizing something as when actually seeing it, allowing practitioners to create powerful internal experiences for deep transformation.
A Bodhisattva is an individual with an 'awakened mind' (bodhi) who is motivated to help others and effectively works for the good of the world, embodying both great wisdom and compassion.
Enlightenment (Sanje) is defined as completely 'clearing away' all distractions and habitual mental patterns, and fully 'bringing forth' or maturing one's inherently pure true nature.
He has deeply mastered the methods of Buddhist practice, clearing away much of the 'stuff in the way' and bringing forth his true nature, which manifests as a constant state of joy and presence.
14 Actionable Insights
1. Understand Suffering’s Root Causes
Recognize that suffering arises from latching onto impermanent things, avoiding dislikes, and imposing preferences onto reality, which helps to alter your mindset.
2. Practice Daily Short Meditation
Engage in daily meditation, even for 15 minutes, to avoid reacting to external events, tune into yourself, and make more on-track decisions throughout the day.
3. Find a Qualified Meditation Teacher
Seek out a meditation teacher who is accomplished and knowledgeable in the scholarly tradition to significantly improve your practice, similar to learning an instrument.
4. Experiment with Meditation Paths
Try different meditation lineages and traditions, ‘road testing’ methods to see what feels right and resonates personally, as no single path suits everyone.
5. Attend Meditation Retreats
Engage in total immersion retreats, even for a weekend, to accelerate changing mental habits and leap ahead in your practice, much like learning a foreign language.
6. Perform Tibetan Nose Blow
Use the ‘Tibetan nose blow’ (lung rosell) by forcefully expelling air from alternate nostrils while visualizing the expulsion of negative emotions (ignorance, desire, aversion) to quickly settle into clear, calm meditation.
7. Utilize Visualization in Practice
Actively use visualization in your meditation, as the brain reacts similarly to imagined and real experiences, enabling deep transformation of the mind.
8. Redirect Everyday Mental Habits
Take common mental activities, like internal conversations and visualization, and consciously turn them toward more positive, reality-aligned directions to increase happiness and reduce suffering.
9. Practice Dong Lin Compassion
Engage in Dong Lin (Tonglen) by visualizing a suffering person, breathing in their dark suffering into your heart, and breathing out bright white happiness to them, starting with yourself and gradually expanding to all beings.
10. Practice Loving Kindness Daily
Consistently practice loving kindness meditation every day, as this daily effort is the key to improving your capacity for compassion and connection.
11. Cultivate Open, Questioning Mind
Approach new ideas and experiences with an open, questioning, and investigative mindset, avoiding snap judgments to make more room for learning and growth.
12. Motivate Practice with Awareness
Fuel your meditation practice by recognizing how self-centered thinking leads to unhappiness, preferring mindful moments, and acknowledging the inevitability of death to reduce fear.
13. Practice Egoless Compassion
Cultivate compassion and loving kindness without ego-tinge or sentimentality, focusing instead on a genuine, expansive desire to take away suffering and replace it with happiness.
14. Loosen Ego Identification
Consciously work to loosen your identification with fixed aspects of your ego, such as your name or roles, as this can lead to a ’lightening up of the grasp of ego’.
8 Key Quotes
Enlightenment is easy for those who have no preferences.
Lama Tsomo
As Rinpoche knew from the beginning and I came to know much later, our relationship had begun lifetimes ago and will no doubt go into future ones.
Lama Tsomo
Do I have something better to pursue than enlightenment? I don't know what that would be.
Lama Tsomo
If you're changing the habits of your mind and trying to, you know, get your mind off of these pathways and onto those pathways, then total immersion is an important way to go.
Lama Tsomo
The closer we are to real reality, the happier we're going to be. The farther our movie is from what actually is going on, the more we're going to suffer.
Lama Tsomo
We really need to pursue wisdom and compassion together.
Lama Tsomo
Dying isn't something that happens to everybody else just. It also happens to us and are we ready?
Lama Tsomo
He's just how a human being can be without all the stuff in the way.
Lama Tsomo
2 Protocols
Tibetan Nose Blow (Lung Rosell)
Lama Tsomo- Forcefully expel air out of one nostril, then the other, alternately a few times.
- Expel air forcefully out of both nostrils together.
- While expelling air, visualize distractedness in the form of negative emotions (ignorance, laziness, stupor; clinging, desire, addiction; aversion, aggression, competitiveness, hatred, worry, fear) being cleared away.
- Sit in clear, calm, aware meditation immediately after.
Dong Lin (Tonglen) Practice for Compassion
Lama Tsomo- Imagine someone who is suffering in front of you, seeing their suffering face (perfection of visualization is not important, feeling is).
- Use your breath to make the experience real.
- Breathe in their suffering (imagined as dense, thick, dark clouds of suffering itself, not the facts of their experience) into your heart.
- Breathe out bright, white clouds of happiness to them, visualizing their face changing to a smile.
- Gradually expand this practice beyond your favorite people to include people you don't know (e.g., the person at the checkout counter), and eventually to everybody, to strengthen the muscle of compassion.