Experiencing the Lamrim
Meditating on Bodhicitta and Emptiness
Thursdays, 7:00pm – 8:45pm
October 15 – December 10, 2015
no class on November 26, 2015
January 14 – April 14, 2016
The purpose of listening to the Dharma is to transform our
hearts and minds, and not merely to gain intellectual
knowledge. For the Dharma to be useful, for it to relieve our
problems and suffering, it needs to move from our head to our
heart. We need to gain inner experience of the teachings, and
then to make that stable. To do this we need to meditate on
the various topics of the path.
This course will emphasize meditation on the graduated path to
enlightenment (Lamrim) in order to generate genuine
experiences, and the focus in this period will be bodhicitta
and the bodhisattva activities (six perfections) with a
particular emphasis on emptiness. Students will have a chance
to practice leading meditations, if they wish, and receive
feedback on them. There will also be an opportunity to discuss
any questions, issues, and obstacles that arise during our
meditation practice.
Pabongka Rinpoche said that it is extremely important to not
merely settle for intellectual understanding; otherwise it is
possible for us to become immune to the Dharma:
Can generate both strong faith and listening wisdom about the topics of leisure and fortune,
Impermanence, aversion, and so on; but they have not arisen through analytic meditation.
Such wisdom is nothing more than right judgment and so eventually it fades away.
You run a risk by failing to generate soon after this wisdom
The genuine experience that comes from reflection.
Many persons become insensitive to dharma when they allow
The former awareness to fade away before they can generate the latter.
Once you are overcome by insensitivity to dharma, your mind stream
Becomes ruined and you are incapable of being tamed,
Even by the Lam-rim or the blessed words of your guru.
So apply yourself to the profound method for avoiding insensitivity to dharma....
How, then do you generate the understanding that comes from reflection?
Analytic meditation is the exercise of eliciting experiential realizations.
Supporting Reading
- Geshe Rabten, The Essential Nectar, Wisdom Publications
- Pabongka Rinpoche, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Wisdom Publications
- Tsong-kha-pa, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, Shambhala Publications
- Karin Valham, Lam-Rim Outlines, available from the FPMT shop, or from buddhanet.net
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Suggested Donation: $15 per class or $50 per month (four classes).
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