AwarenessAppearance a single mysterious word. This is what is known isn the profound realization of the Tantric Dzogchen path of Vajrayana while at the same moment the realization far surpasses any tradition, culture, time, place and has been known in many times, traditions and places by adepts of the human spiritual quest.

Unborn Awareness Bright And Open

Lamala Sol Wa Deb So

Occult of Personality podcast episode 156 features author, occultural pioneer, and magickal anthropologist Carl Abrahamsson.

“Everyone uses their phone as either an escapistic tool or a protective tool … so you don’t have to meet anyone’s gaze … because everyone is so immersed in their own escapistic gadget…  It’s so ironic that they call it social media. Yes in one sense, but it’s totally asocial media – it’s just the opposite … there’s a strong streak of Orwellian dystopia … You speak of freedom of expression and that’s great, but what it results in is a morass of too much of everything and no one really cares. So in that sense, if you want to control people and have them totally pacified, you just make everything available for free …”

Podcast 156 promo 2

Sangchen Tsomo: Conga, Drum Kit, Bata, Percussion
- from the album: Unstilted

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/61Wsx2So2uzrn4sIPb4HJf
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMB9Ol8M0Q4yFoc01eUgwqg

Recorded at Dzam Studio, Ann Arbor MI
link: http://tsogyelgar.org/dzam-music/
Engineered and Mixed by Priya Tsomo
Mastered at Studio A Detroit MI by Eric Morgeson


Dedicated to my Beloveds
Traktung Rinpoche and Khandroma

Open Luminous Expanse Wed To
Inexhaustible Loving Possibility
- Sangchen

Artwork by Chen, from the album 8 Bars
https://sangchentsomo.tumblr.com

Red And Black - Chen

Welcome to second episode of The Freedom Place podcast! This is a platform for distributing interviews with and teachings of Traktung Khepa.

Spiritual adept, visionary, poet, farmer, Traktung Khepa is an American-born sage who has taught students in America, Europe, and Cuba since 1990. For 30 years he has guided Tsogyelgar, a contemplative community outside Ann Arbor, Michigan. Equally able to explore the most esoteric aspects and methods of the Tantric path or discuss Existentialism, Santeria, Alchemy, Political Philosophy, or Art History, t.k.’s style of teaching is immediate and relevant. 

As a child, t.k. traveled with his parents from Marrakesh to Istanbul exploring modern and ancient cultures, museums, churches, whirling dervishes, gypsy caves, healers in the Black Forest, and mysteries of Greek ruins. As a teen he had encounters with spiritual aspirants and adepts of every sort from Jesuit priests and Franciscan monks to Krishnamurti, 32nd degree Freemasons, Sufi and Zen masters and more. At the same time he picnicked on the White House lawn with Reagan and joked with Nixon and Kissinger as they played Happy Birthday for his mother on the piano. 

t.k’s lifelong passion for exploring spiritual traditions and life’s meaning has seamlessly melded with his profound realization accomplished through the non-monastic Tantric path. The Adept Thinley Norbu Rinpoche repeatedly encouraged him to share his wisdom and realization to, “Help Westerners clarify the inner meanings of Tantra without distortions.” 

t.k. lives outside Ann Arbor, Michagan with his family. 

My name is Greg Kaminsky and I'm honored and blessed to be your host. I've been a student of Traktung Khepa for a little more than 2 years and I can attest that he is the most authentic teacher I've ever met. It is with great anticipation and joy that we have begun preparing a series of recordings, both teachings and interviews, with t.k. to share with a larger audience.

Today's recording is from a teaching that was given on Sunday, June 2nd, 2019 at Tsogyelgar near Ann Arbor, Michigan. This teaching was part 2 of the Stages of the Path, continuing the from the prior episode. Rinpoche describes this talk as a LamRim teaching, which encompasses the stages of the path from beginning to the end.

This is part 2 that addresses:

- The Great Refusal - a decision to not take part in any harmful actions whether personal, political, spiritual, or otherwise and the importance of this step with regard to one's spiritual path
- the importance of analyzing teachers and teachings with discernment
- choosing a path that you can actually practice
- to discipline the mind and pay attention in order to love
- to embrace not knowing and insecurity because we need to look again and again since we're not already enlightened
- that authentic gurus love to be questioned about the path

And 2 questions at the end:
1. A comparison between Nisargardatta Maharaj's method of focusing on the feeling of "I am" and then going beyond with the tantric practice of Generation Phase deity yoga and the quality of devotion in practice

2. "Ki Ki So So Pagyalo" at the end of Sang incense offering - a practice to raise the spirit 

Feel free to leave comments or questions below or send them to info@tsogyelgar.org

The intro music is "Devotion" by David Modica and the outro music is "Song to a Pigeon Goddess Girl" by Honey Rain.

The name of this podcast, The Freedom Place, is taken from one of t.k.'s poems:

I am only love
This room where I live is only mystery
And here I will live with you
Without beginning or end
Without defining
In this freedom place

https://www.tsogyelgar.org/

http://www.traktungkhepa.com/

Stages of the Path, pt. 2 - The Great Refusal

Welcome to the third episode of The Freedom Place podcast! This is a platform for distributing interviews with and teachings of Traktung Khepa.

Spiritual adept, visionary, poet, farmer, Traktung Khepa is an American-born sage who has taught students in America, Europe, and Cuba since 1990. For 30 years he has guided Tsogyelgar, a contemplative community outside Ann Arbor, Michigan. Equally able to explore the most esoteric aspects and methods of the Tantric path or discuss Existentialism, Santeria, Alchemy, Political Philosophy, or Art History, t.k.’s style of teaching is immediate and relevant. 

As a child, t.k. traveled with his parents from Marrakesh to Istanbul exploring modern and ancient cultures, museums, churches, whirling dervishes, gypsy caves, healers in the Black Forest, and mysteries of Greek ruins. As a teen he had encounters with spiritual aspirants and adepts of every sort from Jesuit priests and Franciscan monks to Krishnamurti, 32nd degree Freemasons, Sufi and Zen masters and more. At the same time he picnicked on the White House lawn with Reagan and joked with Nixon and Kissinger as they played Happy Birthday for his mother on the piano. 

t.k’s lifelong passion for exploring spiritual traditions and life’s meaning has seamlessly melded with his profound realization accomplished through the non-monastic Tantric path. The Adept Thinley Norbu Rinpoche repeatedly encouraged him to share his wisdom and realization to, “Help Westerners clarify the inner meanings of Tantra without distortions.” 

t.k. lives outside Ann Arbor, Michagan with his family. 

Today's recording is from a teaching that was given on Sunday, June 9th, 2019 at Tsogyelgar near Ann Arbor, Michigan. This teaching addresses:

Coming to perfect silence and stillness / passivity & discovery / samatha & vipassana / shine & lhatong / calm abiding & further seeing

Rinpoche also discusses his comment, "Duality is mockery; difference is love," as another expression of Longchenpa's One Ground, Two Paths teaching.

Feel free to leave comments or questions or send them to info@tsogyelgar.org.

The intro music is "Devotion" by David Modica and the outro music is "Something of Silence" from Just a Tourist's brand new album, Ruined for Business, soon to be available where you buy music.

The name of this podcast, The Freedom Place, is taken from one of t.k.'s poems:

I am only love
This room where I live is only mystery
And here I will live with you
Without beginning or end
Without defining
In this freedom place

https://www.tsogyelgar.org/

http://www.traktungkhepa.com/

https://www.facebook.com/JustaTouristBand/

Silence & Stillness

Welcome to the fourth episode of The Freedom Place podcast! This is a platform for distributing interviews with and teachings of Traktung Khepa.

Spiritual adept, visionary, poet, farmer, Traktung Khepa is an American-born sage who has taught students in America, Europe, and Cuba since 1990. For 30 years he has guided Tsogyelgar, a contemplative community outside Ann Arbor, Michigan. Equally able to explore the most esoteric aspects and methods of the Tantric path or discuss Existentialism, Santeria, Alchemy, Political Philosophy, or Art History, t.k.’s style of teaching is immediate and relevant. 

As a child, t.k. traveled with his parents from Marrakesh to Istanbul exploring modern and ancient cultures, museums, churches, whirling dervishes, gypsy caves, healers in the Black Forest, and mysteries of Greek ruins. As a teen he had encounters with spiritual aspirants and adepts of every sort from Jesuit priests and Franciscan monks to Krishnamurti, 32nd degree Freemasons, Sufi and Zen masters and more. At the same time he picnicked on the White House lawn with Reagan and joked with Nixon and Kissinger as they played Happy Birthday for his mother on the piano. 

t.k’s lifelong passion for exploring spiritual traditions and life’s meaning has seamlessly melded with his profound realization accomplished through the non-monastic Tantric path. The Adept Thinley Norbu Rinpoche repeatedly encouraged him to share his wisdom and realization to, “Help Westerners clarify the inner meanings of Tantra without distortions.” 

t.k. lives outside Ann Arbor, Michigan with his family. 

My name is Greg Kaminsky and I'm honored and blessed to be your host. I've been a student of Traktung Khepa for a little more than 2 years and I can attest that he is the most authentic teacher I've ever met. It is with great anticipation and joy that we have begun preparing a series of recordings, both teachings and interviews, with t.k. to share with a larger audience.

If you've listened to the first three episodes, you may, as I do, wonder exactly who is this enlightened being giving these tremendous teachings? Well, hopefully this interview will begin to provide some considerations on that question. In it, Rinpoche discusses who he is, the concept of identity, and what a Buddha is. I feel tremendous joy in being able to share this interview with you and I pray that it has as much of an impact as it did on me.

Feel free to leave comments or questions or send them to info@tsogyelgar.org.

The intro music is "Devotion" by David Modica and the outro music is "Dakini Night Poem" sung by Sky, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHwcywjXWUA.

The name of this podcast, The Freedom Place, is taken from one of t.k.'s poems:

I am only love
This room where I live is only mystery
And here I will live with you
Without beginning or end
Without defining
In this freedom place

https://www.tsogyelgar.org/

http://www.traktungkhepa.com/

The Part & the Whole: Identitylessness & Buddha

Stream for free in honor of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's 6th Decho. You can support our work by purchasing the download - click BUY.

During this intimate evening of inspirational stories shared at Open Secret Bookstore in San Rafael, California, in the Spring of 2010, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche relates the history of the Repkong yogi tradition founded by his ancestor, Palchen Namkha Jigme, a former hunter who discovered the true nature of samsara and sought a way out of its endless cycle, as well as stories of his own special upbringing in a ngakpa yogi family in Tibet. The Repkong ngakpas were famous and revered for both their not-so-ordinary ordinary accomplishments, as well as for their realization of supreme siddhis. Rinpoche, the tenth family lineage holder of the Repkong yogis, relates awe-inspiring stories of these powerful householder ngakpa practitioners, as well as his father’s influence on Rinpoche’s own spiritual development and maturation. 
Open Secret Bookstore, San Rafael, California, April 13, 2010.
© 2010 Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, 2019 Lama Tharchin Rinpoche Heritage Foundation
Photo: Zhitro Pujas at Repkong, Amdo, Tibet, August 2011

Repkong Ngakpas OS 2010-04-13

Wisdom does not kneel to worldly power. The conflict embodied within us is the refusal of wisdom and the choosing of worldly concerns over Truth. The birth of wisdom heralded by signs is the urge toward itself, Perfect Wisdom Love. The Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun. 

image: Nativity(detail), Arthur Hughes, 1858

The Birth of Wisdom Over Power - t.k.

Occult of Personality podcast explores realms of the occult and esoteric with authors and experts in the field.

Podcast 156 promo 2

Occult of Personality

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