Meditating on Bodhicitta and Emptiness

Experiencing the Lamrim

with Emily Hsu

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:

A mere semblance of listening, study, and understanding
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

Support

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Audio Recordings

Class

Topics

Introduction

2–3

Precious Human Rebirth

Precious Human Rebirth, Impermanence and Death

5–8

Impermanence and Death

Impermanence and Death, Lower Realms

Lower Realms

11–14

Refuge

15–20

Karma

Introduction to Medium Scope

22–26

True Suffering

True Suffering, True Cause of Suffering

28–34

True Cause of Suffering

35–44

Bodhicitta

45–61

Bodhisattva activities (the Six Perfections)

Registration

Suggested Donation: $15 per class or $50 per month (four classes).

Your generous donations are essential for the continuation of programs like this. No one turned away due to lack of funds — please contact us to make arrangements.