“I can’t count mantra.” I confess this out loud in the shrine tent amid the gathering of three hundred of Sogyal Rinpoche’s senior and most devoted students from around the world. I didn’t know how to use a mala—Buddhist beads for counting sacred syllables, a method to pacify discursive thoughts. Nor did I particularly want to use the mala…

With thousands in attendance and tight security around HH the Dalai Lama, how could there not be ostentatious displays of ego on the hallowed ground? All that I was experiencing at Lerab Ling (the good and the bad) was an expression of karmic force, and how I chose to react would create more karma accordingly. Lama Khyenno! It lit a fire under me to go beyond karma. I missed the rural quiet...