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)
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.
Four-Armed Chenrezig
Four Armed Chenrezig — image courtesy of Osel Shen Phen Ling
Supporting reading
Topics
1
2-3
4
5-8
9
10
11-14
15-20
21
22-26
27
28-34
35-44
​45-61
Introduction
Precious Human Rebirth
Precious Human Rebirth, Impermanence and Death
Impermanence and Death
Impermanence and Death, Lower Realms
Lower Realms
Refuge
Karma
Introduction to Medium Scope
True Suffering
True Suffering, True Cause of Suffering
True Cause of Suffering
Bodhicitta
Bodhisattva activities (the Six Perfections)
Registration at the door: $15 per class or $50 per month (four classes).  Members of a certain level get courses for free (see the membership program for details).

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.