Discovering Buddhism 3: Presenting the Path

Discovering Buddhism in the Daytime with Jon Landaw

To meet Jon and learn more about the Discovering Buddhism program, please attend the Open House on Sept. 26 at 10:30am: Discovering Buddhism Open House with Jon Landaw

6 Consecutive Thursdays at 10:30am-12:15pm. Oct. 3 thru Nov. 7

This is Discovering Buddhism (DB) for people who prefer to take classes during the day. We hope this weekday morning time slot will work for parents, seniors, self-employed and people with flexible schedule.

Discovering Buddhism module 3 is a general overview of the Lam Rim - stages of the path to enlightenment. This system of clarifying the teachings of the Buddha and how to practice was taught to the Tibetan people by the famous Indian Buddhist master, Guru Atisha Dipamkara Shri Jnana around 1000 years ago. Based on Master Atisha's seminal work, A Lamp for the Path, many later books and poems were composed in Tibet, by masters such as Gampopa and Tsongkhapa, all the way up to modern times.

The Lam Rim gives us a road map for our study and practice - a way to make sense of all the volumes of Buddhist scriptures and commentary. When we understand the Lam Rim, we understand how all the Buddha's teachings fit together as a practice for an individual person, i.e., ourselves.

TOPICS COVERED:

- The goal: enlightenment, i.e., buddhahood
- structure of the lam-rim, stages of the path
- lam-rim literature and outlines
- Three Principal Paths: 1. deciding to get out of suffering 2. developing the compassionate courage of a bodhisattva 3. understanding the nature of reality
- How to meditate on the lam-rim