Namchak Community Blog

Like the rest of the world, we’ve shifted the way we do things in order to navigate the ever-changing COVID-19 crisis. When physical distancing became the norm to keep us all safe, we started brainstorming how best to support our community during these new times. We shifted our retreats online and launched virtual learning groups. Lama Tsomo...

Last week on Awakin Calls, Jacques Verduin, an expert in prison rehabilitation and Founding Director and Minister of Transformation of Insight-Out and Founder of its GRIP (Guiding Rage into Power) Program, and Lama Tsomo discussed how we can help us, free ourselves from prisons of our own making. Their perspectives and life experiences come...

The need or desire to stay connected to what’s happening right now, to soak in all the information we can to make informed decisions, and to make sure we stay active in the world can cause us to feel burned out emotionally and mentally. While it can leave us feeling selfish, one of the best things to do is take a break. Be easy on yourself. Yes,...

Back to school is often a frenzied time for families with children in school. Back to school looks a little different this year. For a lot of us, the normal excitement has been replaced with tough decision making and anxiety. How we wish we could provide a blanket solution for all parents juggling their child’s or children’s education, safety,...

It is true that compassion has the power to increase your happiness and that of others. But there is a caveat. First, you must feel like you are being compassionate to yourself. However, this doesn’t mean you have to engage in overly self-indulgent activities in order to practice compassion. Here are some ideas for quick and small acts of...

Lama Tsomo and Khen Rinpoche describe mindfulness simply as remembering what we are doing. How often are we walking through life without paying attention to the fact that we are walking or taking in the sights around us? Often it seems that we are moving too fast to notice what we are doing. For most of us, back to school time or life transitions...

Whether you’re looking for your next camping trip read or preparing your “to-be-read” pile for fall, here are three of Lama Tsomo’s most recent book recommendations. Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald (Penguin Random House) We’re very conditioned to see the world in clumpings that are unconsciously...

Intellectualization is a defense mechanism by which reasoning is used to block confrontation with unconscious conflict & its emotional stress

Let’s talk about implicit bias. First, the definition: Implicit biases are the thoughts and feelings we hold towards others that are unconscious or mistaken. This means we’re very conditioned to see the world in ways that allow us to easily maneuver and navigate in society. Whatever biases are around us, we soak up unconsciously. It can be easy...