Welcome to Jewel Heart's blog, wisdom from Gelek Rimpoche's teachings, and periodic updates on what's happening in the Jewel Heart International community.

In Tibetan, the Sanskrit word dharma is translated as chö. That means “change or correction.” In other words, we are changing or correcting our negative addictions into a positive way of functioning. That is true chö. Say you get angry all the time. You try to change that negative addiction into being compassionate and patient….
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We do recommend to contemplate and meditate. So where do you begin? That’s the real question. You can begin the Buddhist [meditation] from any level. Traditionally, in Tibet it begins with the guru-devotional practice. Traditionally, in early India, it began with the refuge. To correspond these, the guru devotional practice is part of refuge, because…
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If I develop zhi nay, or shamatha, what do I get? 1. I will have tremendous happiness in the mind and joy in my body, and that is going to make me happy and joyful in this life. We are not talking about the long shot. We are not talking about enlightenment nor about a…
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WISDOM What is wisdom? In Buddhism, we can talk about wisdom in many ways. The way the Prajnaparamita sutras deal with wisdom is: combining wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom is a state of mind, no doubt. However, these sutras do not directly talk about the mind. Instead, they talk about the nature of reality. The nature…
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The question rises, why do we need both? In this country we never raise that question. Everybody talking about meditation talks about focusing: sit down, count your breath. But no one really talks about the penetrating mind, the mind that goes deep down and finds out. For example, if we talk about addiction to negative…
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