Guilt: Good for Nothing
Jon Landaw
Sunday, June 23: 10:30am-12pm
Many people in our culture struggle with a sense of guilt. This can manifest as low self-esteem or the nagging feeling that nothing we do is ever quite good enough. Some of us automatically deflect whatever praise we might receive because we believe, on some fundamental level, that we’re simply not worthy of it.
If we encounter a spiritual path, such as Buddhism, that asserts we are all fundamentally pure and have the inborn potential to achieve the full enlightenment of limitless goodness, wisdom and ability, our subtle but pervasive sense of guilt can hold us back from following that path whole-heartedly. Even worse, it can cause us to misinterpret the teachings of such a path so they become another stick with which to beat ourselves, just something else to feel guilty about.
Join us as Jon Landaw offers a presentation of what such inspiring masters as His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the beloved Lama Thubten Yeshe have had to say about how to free ourselves from this unnecessary burden. Our session will include time for Q&A, discussion, meditation and delicious home-made scones. Everyone is welcome.
This is part of our Taste of Buddhism program. Join us for a short talk, meditation, and taste treats on Sunday mornings. Each week features a new topic. Open to all levels.
If we encounter a spiritual path, such as Buddhism, that asserts we are all fundamentally pure and have the inborn potential to achieve the full enlightenment of limitless goodness, wisdom and ability, our subtle but pervasive sense of guilt can hold us back from following that path whole-heartedly. Even worse, it can cause us to misinterpret the teachings of such a path so they become another stick with which to beat ourselves, just something else to feel guilty about.
Join us as Jon Landaw offers a presentation of what such inspiring masters as His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the beloved Lama Thubten Yeshe have had to say about how to free ourselves from this unnecessary burden. Our session will include time for Q&A, discussion, meditation and delicious home-made scones. Everyone is welcome.
This is part of our Taste of Buddhism program. Join us for a short talk, meditation, and taste treats on Sunday mornings. Each week features a new topic. Open to all levels.
Jon Landaw has been a student of Tibetan Buddhism since the 1970s in India where he met his principal teachers—Lama Thubten Yeshe, Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey—and served as English editor for the Translation Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala. He and his family have been living in the Santa Cruz area since 1988.
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