Students are asked to join The Buddhist Society as members if they wish to attend this class
Thursdays in term time at The Buddhist Society and online at 6.30pm UK
Join Zoom Meeting
https://thebuddhistsociety.zoom.us/j/268852436
Meeting ID: 268 852 436
This class is usually on a Thursday evening at 6.30pm.
This class is for members of The Buddhist Society
The class begins with a meditation, followed by the presentation and discussion of instructions and philosophical topics from a text. For this term, the text we will be following is: Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s ‘Luminous Clarity: A Commentary on Karma Chagme’s Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.’
For Buddhists, Enlightenment is not some vague esoteric idea but a precise and attainable goal and success in the achievement of it, like success in any venture, depends upon following the steps laid out by those who have already attained it. These teachings will be presented, discussed and meditated upon in the traditional sequence, as methods for investigating and transforming one’s attitudes, developing positive qualities and striving to realise Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
The meditation is on the nature of the mind. This is practised in all Buddhist traditions, including Theravada, Zen and particularly in Tibetan Mahamudra and Dzogchen.
The nature of mind has certain unique properties as an object of meditation. The mind is doing the meditation, and it meditates on its own nature, to the point of experiencing that nature like water poured into water. In other words, this is a special practice for achieving non-duality of subject and object.
In the meditation on the nature of mind in the Tibetan tradition presented in these classes, one first practices calm abiding meditation on the conventional nature of the mind. This means concentrating single-pointedly on clarity and awareness. It’s a bit like a mirror becoming self-conscious.
Based on that, one uses the stable mind thus developed, to develop insight into the ultimate nature of the mind, its lack of inherent existence, and thereby come to a much deeper experience of the groundlessness of one’s being. The mirror recognises its own emptiness.
There are methods taught for unifying these two stages of the meditation. This union of calm abiding and penetrative insight is the goal of the practices to be learned and engaged in during these classes. It finally leads to nirvana – the cessation of suffering and its causes.
This course will be led by Roy Sutherwood, a former Director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London and a recognised foundation level teacher for the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Roy is a senior student of Geshe Tashi Tsering, currently Abbot of Sera Mey Monastic University, Karnataka, India and has studied under masters of Buddhist philosophy and meditation for many years. He also teaches on the Society’s Introduction to Buddhism course and on Mahayana Buddhist topics at the Society’s annual Summer School.
