Kimberly Holman M.A. Religious Studies Naropa University

Kimberly Holman Quick Facts

Kimberly Holman has an M.A. in Religious Studies from Naropa University. She studies and practices Bön Buddhism and Dzogchen meditation. She is a student of Tenzin Wangyal Rinphoche. She offers practical tips for integrating meditation practice with daily living.

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I graduated from Naropa, a Buddhist-inspired liberal arts university, with an M.A. in Religious Studies in 2008. As a requirement for this program, I completed a month long meditation retreat. At first I was excited, but after a couple of weeks, I was really struggling. My whole body ached. Everything was tight. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was trying too hard. After 12 years of meditation practice, I was still under the mistaken impression that meditation was about entering a mental void. I thought this would bring me peace. Instead, all I felt was frustration and pain.

So I stopped meditating one afternoon and pulled out a book by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche called Healing With Form, Energy, And Light: The Five Elements In Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, And Dzogchen. I turned immediately to the back section of the book on Dzogchen. Suddenly, I had a whole new understanding of what meditation is. Finally able to relax, I closed my eyes and settled into a deeply restorative state of mind. Two hours later, I looked at the clock. It seemed like ten minutes had gone by.

For several weeks, it was as though the whole world had opened up in a vivid display. Everything was aglow with sacred energy. I could literally see the unveiled, manifest condition of the primordial base, the fundamental ground of existence. I knew that everything is perfect just as it is. The Dzogchen teachings refer to this state as the primordial state—uncreated, ever pure, and self-perfected.

I couldn’t read enough about Dzogchen. In fact, it was the topic of my master’s paper.

Dzogchen literally means “Great Perfection” and is considered to be the pinnacle experience of the meditative journey in both the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and Bön Buddhism.

Simply stated, Dzogchen holds the view that beneath the layers of confusion that accentuate our lives, the mind is ever pure and self-perfected. The mind’s true essence is already completely enlightened and without blemish. All the enlightened qualities like peace, joy, compassion, and equanimity spontaneously manifest out of the mind’s true nature, which is both spacious and luminous. Like a wish-fulfilling jewel, it is there just waiting to be discovered.

This is a very positive view of the human mind which holds that we all have unlimited potential and the capacity to reach enlightenment in this very lifetime.

I remember that as I was reading Tenzin Rinpoche’s book during that retreat, I stopped for a moment and looked at his picture on the back cover. A thought flashed in my mind: that’s my teacher.

A couple of years later, I was able to fulfill my aspiration to study with Tenzin Rinphoche; and so off I went to Crestone, Colorado to study the Bönpo Dzogchen teachings of the oral tradition from Zhang Zhung: Masters of the Zhang Zhung Nyengyud.

Bön is Tibet’s oldest spiritual tradition. Traditional accounts hold that thousands of years ago an enlightened buddha named Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche expounded the Bön teachings in the ancient land of Olmo Lungring. Some scholars have identified Olmo Lungring with Zhang Zhung, a country that once surrounded Mount Kailash in western Tibet. Zhang Zhung is considered to be the cradle of Tibetan civilization.

Modern Bön is quite similar to other schools of Tibetan Buddhism, although it retains the richness and zest of its pre-Buddhist roots. The followers of Bön have received oral teachings and transmissions from teachers in an unbroken lineage for many thousands of years. Today, these teachings are being brought to the West by teachers like Tenzin Rinpoche.

I continue to study with Tenzin Rinphoche and other Bön-Buddhist masters. What I present on my website, KimberlyHolman.com, is purely my own understanding and experience with these teachings. While there are no words to describe the vast potential of the innate luminous mind, I’m passionate about putting words together to act as pointers. I hope these words will benefit you and help you to integrate all the benefits of meditation practice with your daily life.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, and be sure to find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ too.

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