By being back to square one constantly, we find lightheartedness in the ultimate sense.
In the spirit of “back to square one”, a favorite expression of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a group of senior teachers were inspired to offer an in-depth study of the Buddha’s foundational teachings of the Hinayana in 2020/2021.
This five-course-series provides a thorough exploration of the Hinayana path drawing on teachings from the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, other prominent teachers and classic sources. The emphasis is on cultivating maitri or friendliness to oneself, and on the Shambhala teachings of basic goodness, gentleness and bravery–allowing us to meet the modern human condition with warriorship and dignity.
The Four Noble Truths are used as the overall organizing principle. Instructions in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness are interwoven and provide a meditative method for embracing the totality of our basically good experience—including pain and suffering.
________________________________________________________________________________
FORMAT:
Foundations For Freedom: The Hinayana I-V is divided into five courses. Each course is co-taught by two teachers, and includes 5-7 recorded talks, study suggestions and contemplations. This is a self-study program which has no time restrictions, nor specific dates of events.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Course 1
The First Noble Truth: Meeting Suffering with Maitri
Teachers: Susan Chapman and Fleet Maull
This course offers an exploration of the nature of suffering from the perspective of the Four Marks of Existence–Impermanence, Suffering, Selflessness and Peace–and how we can meet suffering with maitri or unconditional friendliness. The teachers will also guide students in the exploration and practice of Mindfulness of Body, the first of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
In his earliest teachings, the Buddha taught that the suffering of samsaric existence is the first noble truth. Such suffering is changing and impermanent, and arises from infinite causes and conditions. It feels intensely personal (mine), and, in fact, is one of the bases we use to craft our identity (me and my problems), which is called “mistaking what has no self for a self”. This state of mind generates constant underlying fear and anxiety. When we recognize these simple truths of existence –impermanence, suffering and the absence of a true self– we can experience the peace of nirvana.
For more information and to register, see this link.
________________________________________________________________________________
Course 2
The Second Noble Truth: The Origins of Suffering, Part I: The 5 Skandhas
Teachers: Dale Asrael and John Rockwell
Having recognized the truth of suffering and the confusion that is pervasive in our life, we naturally have questions. How does this state of suffering arise? Where does confusion come from? In this in-depth exploration of the Five Skandhas, we will touch these layers or constellations of experience one by one, starting from the unconditioned, innate ground of open space, and see how we fabricate our own world of projections.
For more information and to register, see this link.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Course 3
The Second Noble Truth: The Origins of Suffering, Part II: Wheel of Life, Karma & 12 Nidanas
Teachers: Judith Simmer-Brown and Loden Nyima
The foundational teachings of the Buddha indicate that the suffering we experience in our lives can come to cessation if we recognize, deeply and profoundly, how that suffering has arisen. This requires gentle bravery and deep contemplation, bypassing simplistic notions of how our suffering has arisen.
For more information and to register, see this link.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Course 4
The Third Noble Truth: Freedom from Suffering
Teachers: Suzann Duquette and Daniel Hessey
Contemplating the cessation of suffering, we first see the accessibility of the third noble truth as the gap. We are basically good. Realizing this to be true is that simple, and we are glimpsing this all the time.
For more information and to register, see this link.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Course 5
The Fourth Noble Truth: The Path of Shila, Samadhi, and Prajna
Teachers: Marianne Bots and Eric Spiegel
We have been studying the Buddha’s first teaching: The Four Noble Truths. After teaching that suffering is pervasive to all experience, that there is a cause to that suffering and that cessation is possible, he then taught a way forward, which we call ”The Path.” In fact, everything he taught and all of our experience as practitioners comprise “The Path.” In this course, we will examine Path from multiple perspectives of what has been taught and what is experienced by us individuals walking this path.
For more info and to register, please click here!
_______________________________________________________________________________
PRICES
Individuals:
$149 for each course
Centers :
$399 for each course
Groups:
$299 for each course
_______________________________________________________________________________
To register for the first course, The First Noble Truth: Meeting Suffering with Maitri, please click here.
To register for the second course, The Second Noble Truth: The Origins of Suffering, Part 1: The Five Skandhas, please click here.
To register for the third course, The Second Noble Truth: The Origins of Suffering, Part II: The Wheel of Life, Karma, and the 12 Nidhanas, please click here.
To register for the fourth course, The Third Noble Truth: Freedom from Suffering, please click here.
To register for the fifth course, The Fourth Noble Truth: The Path of Shila, Samadhi and Prajna, please click here.