Cultivating Insight Within the Experience of Difficult Emotions

Transforming our Limitations into an Opportunity for Cultivating Insight

Developing and maintaining a meditation practice is no small project.

Deep, engaged and thoughtful practice generally involves inviting that which is unpleasant alongside that which is pleasant.

This isn’t always easy.

In fact, sometimes our greatest teachers are the places in which we get stuck, or angry, or feel lost, or anxious.

How do we build our practice to welcome and embrace hardship when such emotions arise?

One thing is certain: such practice has a way of transforming our limitations into fields of vast opportunity. Yet can we embrace hardship?

Join Lama Justin as he shares teachings and practical advice on cultivating insight within the experience of difficult emotions.

Module 1 – Interacting with Everyday Phenomena

Can we learn to bring whatever it is that we are experiencing right now into our practice? There will be two short practical meditation sessions, one of which is a guided visualization and the other a meditation rooted in the Vajrayana insight tradition in which the meditation instruction known as Tilopa’s Six Nails will be transmitted – this continues throughout the course.

Module 2 – Death and Dying

Informed by his prior work in hospice care, Lama Justin shares his experience teaching Buddhist end-of-life practices. Explore the fundamental truth of impermanence, as well as the emotional reactions associated with death and loss. Look at how we can experience insight and freedom from the way fear and anxiety affects us, by resting gently in what arises.

Module 3 – Finding Ourselves in Difficult Places

Explore what it means to learn to embrace that which is difficult and even painful with the practice of insight. Lama Justin will share his experiences as a chaplain at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, as well as tantric Buddhist practices that nudge us in the direction of embracing the full range of reactions associated with interacting with that which is hard and scary.

Module 4 – Learning to Continue Practicing with Radical Openness

Understand the importance of continuing our practice with a commitment to direct radical openness towards everything that we experience. We will explore the heart essence of cultivating insight and what it means to learn how to curate our practice so that we can have confidence and skill in bringing our shadows into our practice, and perhaps, bring our practice off of our cushions and into the world in which we live.

Testimonials

Lama Justin offers wonderfully clear, totally practical teachings rooted in his deep love for and commitment to the repa (lay yogi) tradition of the Karma Kamtsang lineage of Tantric Buddhism. His teachings are directly aimed at combating the suffering caused by the particular forms of loss, trauma, and oppression that arise in contemporary western societies and cultures. Students who apply Lama Justin’s teachings with discipline and diligence discover within ourselves powers of healing, wisdom, and liberation that were always there but completely obscured by our ego-clinging.

Jan Tarlin

I have been a practicing Buddhist for almost 30 years. I have encountered many Buddhist teachers, from whom I have received countless dharma teachings. Lama Justin von Bujdoss (Repa Dorje Ozer) is one of the first, who embodies those teachings with fully engaged compassionate action. He walks his talk! He encourages us to step out of our comfort zone, to reach deep into our own authenticity, our own true nature, not by pointing the way, but by demonstrating how it’s done. Nothing is asked of a student that hasn’t been explored deeply by Lama Justin himself. If you want to take your practice off the cushion, if you want to live the dharma, not just think about it, not just contemplate it, but be truly liberated out of the confines of the self, don’t walk to meet this teacher, run!

Stephanie Barnes

Lama Justin possesses an innate ability to understand my personal human “care and handling instructions.” I don’t even understand these instructions for myself, and often have difficulty articulating them to others. I hope that all beings have the good fortune to encounter their version of a Lama Justin Von Bujdoss!

Jenifer Monger

On-Demand Course Details

8 Hours of video teachings

Filmed in high definition with only you in mind, having an intimate and personal feel that will keep you engaged as your body, mind and heart tune in.

Recorded Q&A Sessions

Videos of 4 recorded interactive sessions from a previous live release of the course are included.

Guided Visualisations

Lama Justin offers several powerful guided visualisations throughout the course to support you in understanding the teachings on an experiential level.

30 Day Refund Guarantee

If you're unsatisfied with the course for any reason, please contact us within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

About Lama Justin von Bujdoss

Lama Justin von Bujdoss is an American vajrayana Buddhist teacher, writer, and the is a co-founder of Bhumisparsha an experimental Buddhist sangha along with Lama Rod Owens. He is the author of Modern Tantric Buddhism: Authenticity and Embodiment in Dharma Practice published by North Atlantic Books, and contributor to Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections published by Lexington Books. From 2016 until December 2021 Justin served as the Executive Director of Chaplaincy and Staff Wellness for NYC Department of Correction where he also served as Staff Chaplain supervising over 30 chaplains and guided wellness programming for staff. Justin also has professional experience in home hospice and hospital settings as a pastoral caregiver. Lama Justin is currently the chaplain for Hart Island, New York City’s public cemetery.

Justin was ordained as a repa, a lay tantric yogin in the tradition of Milarepa, by His Eminence Gyaltsab Rinpoche, one of the heart sons of His Holiness the 16^th Karmapa. Lama Justin has presented on Buddhist practice at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Chicago, Wellesley, Columbia University, has been a visiting instructor at Union Theological Seminary, teaches at Pure Land Farms. Justin is passionate about helping to create the conditions for authentic embodied tantric Buddhist spiritual practice in the West.

Search Sangha Live

On-Demand Course