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Hi Will, interesting stuff and glad to hear you are getting these benefits.

Burbea - are you referring to Rob Burbea? I have his book "Seeing that Frees" and got some benefit from one of the exercises about holding all phenomena that arise with metta. Could you point me to this "nonreificationist-non-realist approach"?

Are these dialectics part of the Wiser by Design course? I'm curious to try that. His video on "How to destroy a civilisation" you posted in the other thread has piqued my interest in his material. Any other info you want to share about your experiences with it would be interesting. How long have you been working with it, over the calendar / per day etc?

Thanks!

Then there's Glimmerings of the Mystical Life by Namgyal Rinpoche, teacher of Culadasa's teacher. He taught the Western Mysteries right alongside Theravadin, Vajrayana and a host of other teachings.

https://www.amazon.com/Glimmerings-Mystical-Life-Namgyal-Rinpoche/dp/1895316057

Thanks John, had never heard of fellow Torontonian Namgyal Rinpoche til now. 

thanks also to Will for the Alan Chapman site

He's a really interesting guy to look into. there is a facebook group dedicated to him with some interesting content. he has some really good essays.

There is a book called Tales of Awakening written by students of his compiling stories of what it was like to travel with him etc.

So true. Although he never actually authored a book, these are some that were compiled from his talks over the years by students. He taught at Masonic lodges as well as in Buddhist circles - a truly fearless pioneer at a time when far less was known about paths of awakening than today. Body, Speech and Mind in particular is almost encyclopedic in its range and profundity.

In his most recent Patreon Zoom Q&A Culadasa said this about Namgyal: 
“The wonderful thing about what he did was that it opened our minds, so that we were freed from the doctrinaire shackles of any one tradition. One of the greatest gifts that Namgyal gave us was to open us up. I mean, he was an ordained Theravadin monk who was actually regarded at a very high level in the spiritual hierarchy that defined the particular branch of Theravadin Buddhism that he was a part of. He was highly acknowledged in that. Yet he sought reordination in the Tibetan tradition and took the name Namgyal Rinpoche. He was recognized by the Karmapa as the tulku of Namgyal, but then he proceeded to expand beyond it. His great gift to all of us who are connected to his lineage is the openmindedness to look into other Buddhist traditions and to look everywhere, and had I not done that, I could not have succeeded in my practice the way I did, nor could I have written a book like TMI, nor would I be able to write the book that I'm currently working on which is about the Dharma.”

Thanks for sharing that, really interesting to hear that perspective on him.

JohnM, have you read Unfolding through Art? It struck my interest but its a bit costly so I'm curious what your impression of it is. Anything else you can say about Body, Speech and Mind or Paleochora Discourses or Right Livelihood or Womb, Karma, Transcendence or The Path of Victory or A Body of Truth books I'd be really interested in, am having a hard time choosing which to get, thanks!

Yes Andrew, I took the above photo of Namgyal Rinpoche’s books this morning - they are from my shelves. Unfolding Through Art is a wonderful study that weaves eastern and western themes and includes Rinpoche’s own wonderful art. The binding is old and I’m not sure how easy it still is to obtain. As for where to start, Body, Speech and Mind is unlike any Dharma book I have ever read and is definitely my recommendation. I personally retyped the entire book from the first edition hard copy for the second edition when it was being prepared for publication back in the early 90s and it is a matchless practical masterpiece. After that I would follow Namgyal’s own advice and “meditate according to your interest”: The Breath of Awakening is an excellent guide to Anapanasati, Karma, the Womb and Transcendence is a groundbreaking work on womb clearing and insight - the list goes on. Most are available from Bodhi Publishing I believe. Tell Karma Chime I said hello. :-) A treasure trove in these books.

Thanks for the pics! Good to know that those two books in particular are so good, and yeah the website where I was looking at them is Bodhi Publishing. Am still trying to decide which to get: Womb/Karma and Paleochora discourses both look really appealing but my wallet is a little light at the moment.
Transcribing that book whole must have been a great practice. I really like the "10 dharma activities":




For anyone interested, there are essays of his for free reading at this link: http://bodhipublishing.org/contents/en-ca/d19.html

Thanks Andrew! Copying out sutras is a major practice here in Japan.

You can't go wrong with any of Namgyal's books. Some show their age more than others in the details and the views he was addressing at the time, but the practices and principles are there in all their depth and range.

Namgyal called himself "the last of the red-hot lamas." It's such a delight to see third-generation "professionals" like Culadasa and Shannon Stein who are following in his footsteps, carrying the torch for the pragmatic scene and beyond in ways that those of us "civilians" who knew Rinpoche directly can instantly recognize as classic Namgyal lineage. May they continue to scoop up us stragglers. :-)

In closing, a gallery of every Namgyal photo I've been able to collect, including my own. Enjoy!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153395013915294&type=1&l=6aa28882ea