Many people come to Buddhism and mindfulness because they are stressed and seeking a place of peace, a refuge from the changeable and troubled times we live in. Their spiritual practice may start as an individual thing, something they do privately and alone. It’s natural that our spiritual practice has to heal suffering in our own hearts in order to make room for us to think about bigger things… But if months or years have gone by and our practice is still completely focused on ourselves and compassion is not becoming part of what we do, something might be out of balance.

An individual is a part of a greater whole. So are we. We exist in dependence upon many causes and conditions. We call these ‘non self elements‘. The sun is a non self element that causes life to be possible and our food to grow. The earth, water, air, our parents giving us a body (a long and painful process for our birth mother), food, the farmers who grow our food are all non self elements… Even the fact we can read and write is because someone taught us to read and paid taxes for free schools. The fact we don’t freeze in winter and have shelter is because of builders and tailors. Everything we have comes from others. What we understand from seeing inter-connectedness is that we are part of a sacred web, and that happiness is not just a personal matter, it is a communal matter. We cannot be whole and content when the rivers are poisoned and people are so poor they litter the main streets like refuse.

Everyone is made up of social, physical, spiritual and economic conditions. If you change a person’s conditions, it can cause them to bloom and reach their human and spiritual potential. We need to work to create better conditions for people to thrive and to restrain those who wish to harm others and help them find a better way.

Emptyness is fullness. We are empty of a separate, unchanging independent self (although we still have a mind-stream that travels life to life and carries the imprints of karma until we are liberated) and therefore full of and connected to (not one with) the entire universe.

Ideas of karma or impermanence are sometimes used as excuses to do nothing in the face of great suffering, greed and injustice. Actually Buddhists first and foremost should do no harm, and secondly, act with compassion for all beings who have been our dearest friends and mothers in so many past lives.

Karma means action. It is not destiny. Karma can change. Karma means we can create causes and conditions to end suffering. They are not an excuse to be apathetic or to not question systems of oppression or injustice that exploit beings or keep the privileged in power and justify injustice. It is not ok to sit in your peaceful upper class centre while the world is falling apart.

“As long as space remains, as long as there are those who suffer, may I too remain,
To remove the darkness of the world….
May I be the light in dark places, a companion to those alone on the road,
To the sick may I be medicine, and to those bereft may I be like a wishfulfilling tree.”

The Bodhisattva’s way of Life

This is why at Bodhicitta Dakini Monastery we are committed to helping relieve the suffering of the world in practical ways, addressing and dismantling systems of oppression like gender inequality, poverty, racism and homophobhia as well as preserving/practicing and disseminating the Teachings of our Abbess Ayya Yeshe and the Nalanda Tradition (Tibetan Buddhism RIME).

We also do certain practices from the Master Thich Nhat Hanh and keep certain Vinaya elements from the Theravada Vinaya, but the core of our practices are based on the Bodhisattva ideal, calm abiding meditation/mahamudra and Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy.

Many people come to Buddhism and mindfulness because they are stressed and seeking a place of peace, a refuge from the changeable and troubled times we live in. Their spiritual practice may start as an individual thing, something they do privately and alone. It’s natural that our spiritual practice has to heal suffering in our own hearts in order to make room for us to think about bigger things… But if months or years have gone by and our practice is still completely focused on ourselves and compassion is not becoming part of what we do, something might be out of balance.

An individual is a part of a greater whole. So are we. We exist in dependence upon many causes and conditions. We call these ‘non self elements‘. The sun is a non self element that causes life to be possible and our food to grow. The earth, water, air, our parents giving us a body (a long and painful process for our birth mother), food, the farmers who grow our food are all non self elements… Even the fact we can read and write is because someone taught us to read and paid taxes for free schools. The fact we don’t freeze in winter and have shelter is because of builders and tailors. Everything we have comes from others. What we understand from seeing inter-connectedness is that we are part of a sacred web, and that happiness is not just a personal matter, it is a communal matter. We cannot be whole and content when the rivers are poisoned and people are so poor they litter the main streets like refuse.

Everyone is made up of social, physical, spiritual and economic conditions. If you change a person’s conditions, it can cause them to bloom and reach their human and spiritual potential. We need to work to create better conditions for people to thrive and to restrain those who wish to harm others and help them find a better way.

Emptyness is fullness. We are empty of a separate, unchanging independent self (although we still have a mind-stream that travels life to life and carries the imprints of karma until we are liberated) and therefore full of and connected to (not one with) the entire universe.

Ideas of karma or impermanence are sometimes used as excuses to do nothing in the face of great suffering, greed and injustice. Actually Buddhists first and foremost should do no harm, and secondly, act with compassion for all beings who have been our dearest friends and mothers in so many past lives.

Karma means action. It is not destiny. Karma can change. Karma means we can create causes and conditions to end suffering. They are not an excuse to be apathetic or to not question systems of oppression or injustice that exploit beings or keep the privileged in power and justify injustice. It is not ok to sit in your peaceful upper class centre while the world is falling apart.

“As long as space remains, as long as there are those who suffer, may I too remain,
To remove the darkness of the world….
May I be the light in dark places, a companion to those alone on the road,
To the sick may I be medicine, and to those bereft may I be like a wishfulfilling tree.”

The Bodhisattva’s way of Life

This is why at Bodhicitta Dakini Monastery we are committed to helping relieve the suffering of the world in practical ways, addressing and dismantling systems of oppression like gender inequality, poverty, racism and homophobhia as well as preserving/practicing and disseminating the Teachings of our Abbess Ayya Yeshe and the Nalanda Tradition (Tibetan Buddhism RIME).

We also do certain practices from the Master Thich Nhat Hanh and keep certain Vinaya elements from the Theravada Vinaya, but the core of our practices are based on the Bodhisattva ideal, calm abiding meditation/mahamudra and Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy.