SPIRITUAL: Special Class

This is  an amazing opportunity to learn a simple and comprehensive practice from a highly qualified teacher!

Seven Limb practice is a complete practice, and a simple way to gain merit.  It contains all the elements of Buddhist practice:     • prostration     • making offerings     • purification     • rejoicing     • requesting the teacher to turn the wheel of Dharma     • requesting the teacher to remain until the end of samsara, and     • dedication.

The Kadampa Masters, for whom our center is named, highly recommended this practice, according to Geshe Gelek.

We are extremely fortunate to have Geshe Sangpo teaching this course. When he was studying at Sera Je Monastery, he specialized in ritual and developed
a high level of expertise. He has been actively involved in preparing and performing many pujas, including asssiting His Holiness the Dalai Lama
with pujas at Sera Je.

The class will include specific instructions in:

    • how to make a prostration

    • how to do the offering hand mudras (very important for doing Kriya Tantra practice such as Tara practice), and

    • how to set up an altar and offering bowls.

These classes will meet each Thursday night from 7 pm to 8:30 pm beginning March 28.

They are an excellent preparation for the Tara mini-retreat that will take place at Kadampa Center at the end of April.

Registration requested. To register, click here.

Dharma study is rich with ideas for understanding our lives and how to live them. We can come out of a class with our minds buzzing:

"What about this aspect of karma?"

"Understanding impermanence really helped me come to grips with that loss in my life... I wonder what others took from it."

"I still can't get my mind around emptiness and dependent arising."

Our teachers advise us that discussion and debate are a good method for bringing the teachings alive and weaving them into our thought processes. In these facilitated discussion sessions, we invite everyone --  past and future Discovering Buddhism students and teachers, and anyone else who wants to discuss foundational Buddhist topics in the context of day-to-day practice. Each week will have its own topic as a jumping off point.

Click here to let us know you'll be joining the discussion. 

February 18 - Most of us have experienced some level of depression or anxiety. When these feelings arise, what remedies work for you? How does Buddhism help?

February 25 - What is happiness? What does a happy person look like? We say that all beings want to be happy. What does that mean?

Private event for group going on pilgrimage to India.

Dharma study is rich with ideas for understanding our lives and how to live them. We can come out of a class with our minds buzzing:

"What about this aspect of karma?"

"Understanding impermanence really helped me come to grips with that loss in my life... I wonder what others took from it."

"I still can't get my mind around emptiness and dependent arising."

Our teachers advise us that discussion and debate are a good method for bringing the teachings alive and weaving them into our thought processes. In these facilitated discussion sessions, we invite everyone --  past and future Discovering Buddhism students and teachers, and anyone else who wants to discuss foundational Buddhist topics in the context of day-to-day practice. Each week will have its own topic as a jumping off point.

December 3 - There are so many ways to think about practice. "Sit Every Day" and "Daily Life is Practice" are two of them. What do you think?

November 26 - The Lion's Roar article "Turn Your Thinking Upside Down" is excerpted from Practicing Peace, by Pema Chödrön. It is rich with discussion material focusing on the idea "We base our lives on seeking happiness and avoiding suffering, but the best thing we can do for ourselves—and for the planet—is to turn this whole way of thinking upside down. Pema Chödrön shows us Buddhism’s radical side."

November 12 - Venerable Robina answers the question "What is Anger?" in this Mandala Magazine article. Also, reprinted from “Anger,” by Thich Nhat Hanh, this Lion's Roar article teaches you how to relax the bonds of anger, attachment, and delusion through mindfulness and kindness toward yourself. Which of these methods are helpful to you? How similar or different are they from conventional methods?

November 5 - In this Lion's Roar article "How to Practice Metta for a Troubled Time," Mushim Patricia Ikeda teaches us how to generate loving-kindness and good will as an antidote to hatred and fear. Have you tried this? Does it work? Is it possible to feel like we are making any impact when we think about these "troubled times?" Throughout the discussion weeks, we'll use this FPMT article "Method, Wisdom and the Three Paths" by Geshe Lhundrub Sopa to put our discussion into context. 

The discussion groups will meet November 5, 12 and 26, and December 3 and 10.  We will not meet the Monday before Thanksgiving.

In this series of workshops, we will explore different methods of integrating practice into our daily lives, as outlined in Denise Flora's book, The Rhythm of Virtue. These workshops will take place on the third Sunday of October, November and December, 2018, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. Each session will focus on a particular method; we will list the method for each workshop as the dates draw nearer.

Schedule

 

Bring a drum or use one provided to explore rhythm as a way to integrate individual virtues as well as to learn lists of virtues. We'll use the 16 Guidelines for a Happy Life as an example list -- appropriate for people of whatever spiritual groundwork -- but if you have another list, bring it and you can adapt the method. Past participants said, " All seemed to get a lot out of it and some added their own thing to suit their own voice." Note: this is a facilitated workshop, not a drum circle format. Designed for adults.

Join us to celebrate the book launch, more than 10 years in the making! During our monthly Tea Time, meet our own Kadampa Center author, Denise Flora and hear about her book, The Rhythm of Virtue -- think something positive throughout the day, triggered by rhythmic sounds and motions of daily life. We will begin about 11:40 with a short reading in the gompa (main gathering room) at the end of the teaching and just before the party in the lobby.

Denise will also happily sign your copy of her book!