A question that is very often posed to me is, “How will doing your practice change me?” “Will I be more effective?” “Will I suffer less?” People would love to hear that their lives will be richer, more harmonious, and that they will be better able to deal with challenging situations. It’s tempting for people …
An interview of Peter Fenner by Leo Drioli and Enza Vita from InnerSelf You spent 9 years as a Buddhist monk, how was that and why did you decide to become a lay teacher? I became a monk when I was 26 because I needed the security of an ethical commitment. Within Buddhism it is …
In Radiant Mind and other courses I offer I prefer to talk about “intimacy” rather than “love.” This gives us a fresh opportunity to invent what we mean by the word “ love.” Rather than saying a lot about “love” and potentially debase with word, the idea of “intimacy” can be approached more openly. I …
One of the common things I hear from people when I’m running a workshop is that, “This space is great, but my life is so busy. I just don’t have the time to rest and be present to “what is.” I’ve got the meals to prepare, emails to do, phone calls with family and friends, …
Buddhism captured my attention over 40 years ago when I was a university student. The idea that our needs and preferences are the source of our suffering made immediate sense at an intellectual level. Having what we don’t want, and not having what we do want, is the recipe for all our pain, upset and …
The Progressive Presencing of Co-emergent Wisdom [1] Peter Fenner, Ph.D. Copyright © Peter Fenner, 2011 Introduction In this article I’d like to layout the way in which I introduce people to nondual awareness, particularly in terms of how I initially differentiate the nondual state from our empirical experience. There are different ways in which I …
Man: One of the things that has struck me during the course is how you say very little about the teacher-student relationship even though you’re teachers in your own right. You seem to work creatively in balancing any projections we might have towards you as “teachers”. This is refreshing as these days there seems to be …
Because it is devoid of any innate substance, meditation does not exist. The act of meditation is not meditation. Because it is neither substance nor nothingness, meditation cannot be a conceivable reality. — Kalachakra Tantra Peter: Those of you who have received teachings on the Tibetan Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions are aware of a space that …
Peter: It is probably safe to assume that you are here this evening because you believe there is some knowledge or insight you could gain, that will help the quality of your life, even though you are no doubt familiar with spiritual literature which says that understanding isn’t really going to help, in the long …
Participant: Can you describe what the Intrinsic Freedom course is about? (Now called Radi- ant Mind Course) Peter: Essentially what we do in a course is create an ideologically neutral environment that allows your own individual way of constructing the experience that “something is missing” to express itself. We don’t impose a philosophical, spiritual, or …