This interview took place on a gray January day in Portland, Oregon.

What is Self-realization?

Shambhavi: The term is pretty literal. It means realizing your Self in the largest sense. Every day we realize our ’small I’ self. We embody ’small I’ all the time with our basic defensiveness toward life. ‘Small I’ stays small by hanging onto fears, habits of separation and conceptual knowing. When we break out of the prison of our defensive “I pod,” we can begin to recognize and embody a more spontaneous, wise and pervasive Self. This larger Self is called Shiva nature or Buddha nature, or whatever. It includes the entire cosmos. (more…)

A reader from Illinois recently asked this question:

I am suspicious of people who say, for example, they talk to animals, see orbs, have past lives, etc. I tend to lean toward the approach of just being with what is without making up a story about it. Although my heart sometimes cries out for deeper meaning in things, I often find out that, for example, the bird that comes into the room is just a bird that has lost its way. It does not have some deeper meaning of impending death or whatever.  I have a friend whose feelings I think I hurt because I said she was superstitious. She says her dog talks to her and sometimes seems to read peoples’ minds. I’m afraid I’ve lost a friend because of my big mouth. Also, with regard to deities, are they just symbols of powerful forces in the universe, and within us, or are they really personalities?

How could you long for deeper meaning if there is none? If you had no knowledge of chocolate, could you long for it?

Each of us, without exception, has some memory, even if it is only an intermittent glimmer, of our real nature — the real nature of the world. This is the focus of our naturally arising longing. (more…)

A reader from Pennsylvania writes:

I’ve spent most of my life taking care of others’ needs and wants and desires. I’m a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a good friend to many. I am fortunate. I’m just lost. People constantly ask me what I am gonna do with my life. My inner response is usually ‘I’m already doing it.’ But that makes me no financial gains. It is hard to survive when your purpose in life is just …TO BE. If you feel like giving me any guidance on this subject, I would appreciate it.

Sounds as if you are doing a lot; you are participating in fundamental aspects of life. But in our culture, work that is not a paid career is not considered to be doing anything much at all. (more…)

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the son of Chogyam Trungpa, has a great sense of humor.

“Many people express to me the concern that meditation will be boring,” Rinpoche said during a talk in Chicago. Then, with a glint in his eye he continued: “Imagine I am speaking to my child. ‘Yes, my child, I will now pass down to you our tradition of meditation. Our tradition is thousands of years old. It has been carefully transmitted from generation to generation, and it’s really, really boring!’” (more…)