Class 9: The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion; “The Spiritual Friend”
Scroll down to watch the recording of the online class #9, recorded on August 17, 2021. We discussed the tenth chapter of Volume 2 of The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma dealing with the spiritual friend in the mahayana.
Class Reading Assignment: Chögyam Trungpa's The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Volume 2, The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion,
Chapter 10 "The Spiritual Friend" pp. 78-86.
Join our ongoing course on Mayahana. We meet every Tuesday at 6:45-7:00 pm Eastern Time for conversation and 7:00-7:30 pm for meditation (you may come for any part or just for class). Class is from 7:35 pm ET until approximately 9:00 pm ET. See below to learn how to attend. Missed a class or would like to preview the class before attending? See below to watch last week’s class.
Led by John Baker, Barry Cunningham, Laura Read, and Michael Kern
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Online Class Recordings of the Course
The recording of class #9, from Tuesday, August 17, 2021. we were discussing the tenth chapter of Volume 2 of The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma dealing with “the spiritual friend” in the mahayana.
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About the Buddhist Path of Awakening Course
Drop-ins Welcomed!
Tuesday Zoom Schedule:
We meet 6:45-7:00 pm Eastern Time for conversation and 7:00-7:30 pm for meditation (you may come for any part or just for class). Class is from 7:35 pm ET until around 9:00 pm ET.
We read a chapter each week from the book The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Volume 2 written by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
The reading from each class is optional but recommended. Buy the book from independent book stores or online.
Drop-ins welcome
For those who plan to attend regularly, advance class registration would be greatly appreciated
To join our next Tuesday Zoom meeting without registering. Click here to request access to Zoom meeting
About the Book Series written by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Starting in 1973 Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, newly arrived in the U.S. from Tibet by way of India and England, began accompanying his students each year on a 3-month fall retreat, presenting them with the teachings of the three divisions of Tibetan Buddhism: Hinayana (Foundational Vehicle), Mahayana (Great Vehicle), and Vajrayana (Indestructible Vehicle). He continued to do this for thirteen years, and the teachings he gave have been transcribed and digested into the three volumes ofThe Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, one volume for each vehicle.
These volumes are one of the very finest ways to immerse oneself in the teachings of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, and they are presented by one of the most profound expositors of Buddhism to arrive in the West. Trungpa Rinpoche loved the Western language and culture, and he presented the teachings in Western idiom, translating the often culturally unfamiliar images beautifully into English.
About the Book The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion
The second volume, The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion, presents the bodhisattva teachings of the mahayana. At this point, having trained and seen the benefits of looking within, the student begins to shift their focus outward to the broader world. Formal entry into the mahayana occurs with taking the bodhisattva vow. Mahayana practitioners dedicate themselves to the service of all sentient beings, aspiring to save them from sorrow and confusion, and vowing to bring them to perfect liberation. This stage of the path emphasizes the cultivation of wisdom through the view and experience of emptiness, or shunyata, in which all phenomena are seen to be unbounded, completely open, ungraspable, and profound. From the ground of shunyata, compassionate activity is said to arise naturally and spontaneously. In addition to mindfulness and awareness, the mahayanist practices lojong, or “mind training,” based on the cultivation of the paramitas, or “transcendent virtues”: generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and prajna, or “knowledge.” As a component of lojong, tonglen, or “sending and taking,” is practiced in order to increase maitri, or loving-kindness. Other topics covered in detail in this volume include bodhichitta, skillful means, Buddha nature and basic goodness, Madhyamaka, the ten bhumis, the three kayas, and more.
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Wednesday Meditation Discussion Group
Our regular discussion group meets on Wednesday each week from 7:35-8:30 pm Eastern Time (just after the evening meditation). The purpose: to provide you with a forum for discussion of your path, your study of the dharma (including the week’s class), your meditation practice, and if you wish, circumstances of your life. Please come!
