Lama Tsomo joins Raghu for a discussion on becoming happy, cultivating compassion, and seeing between the frames of the movie of me.
Lama Tsomo has followed a path of spiritual inquiry and study that ultimately led to her ordination as one of the few American lamas in Tibetan Buddhism. Lama learned Tibetan to study with her teacher Tulku Sangak Rinpoche, and now shares the teachings of the Namchak lineage in the US and abroad. Lama holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology and is the author of books such as the award-winning Why Is the Dalai Lama Always Smiling?, and her upcoming Deepening Wisdom, Deepening Connection. For more info, please visit Namchak.org
Explore the intersection of Buddhism & Bhakti at the inaugural Love Serve Remember Summer Mountain Retreat August 25th – 29th in Boone, NC!
Becoming Happy
Welcoming Lama Tsomo to the Mindrolling podcast, Raghu invites her to to share the unique spiritual path she walked to become a Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Reflecting on how as a child her greatest wish was to be happy, she notes how she follows this thread still today using and sharing practices and spiritual techniques learned through her personal dharma journey, and under the blessing of her teacher, Tulku Sangak Rinpoche.
“Basically, I was on track for figuring out how could I be a better happier person? And I wanted to help other people be better happier people. That seemed like the best thing to do.” – Lama Tsomo
Shantum Seth joins Raghu to talk about his time with Thich Nhat Hanh, on Ep. 316 of Mindrolling
Between the Frames // Deepening Wisdom, Deepening Connection (13:13)
Raghu mentions—in learning about Lama Tsomo through podcast-guru, Duncan Trussell—how when he turned on a dharma talk from her, she was sharing how we live within the ‘movie of me’ – a favorite Raghu topic. Applying the movie metaphor to ‘The Gap’ in Tibetan Buddhism, they explore how one can get to the ‘space between frames.’ Next, they speak on her upcoming book Deepening Wisdom, Deepening Connection, and share on the compassion practice of Tonglen.
“Whenever somebody changes their heart, whenever they wake up to the reality of the fact that there’s this one big ocean and we’re all waves made of that ocean, then compassion comes quite naturally.” – Lama Tsomo
Lama Tsomo & Sharon Salzberg discuss tools of compassion, on Ep. 84 of Mindrolling
Movie of Me // Samatha (36:36)
Digging a little further into moving from the ‘movie of me’ into the ‘movie of us,’ Lama Tsomo and Raghu discuss how we can uproot deep habits of mind so we can begin to see the outside world as not separate from ourself. Closing the show, Lama Tsomo shares a little about her collaboration with Michael Fox and offers insight into the practice of samatha.
“The purpose of samatha is to help us to slow down our minds a little bit, be able to train our minds so that when we set it onto something, whatever it is, it can stay there.” – Lama Tsomo
Joseph Goldstein teaches steadiness amongst the arising & passing, on Ep. 91 of the Insight Hour
