View, Meditation and Action & The Four Noble Truths
By Lama Chokyi Gyaltsen (Lama Mark Webber)
Class 1, July 4, 2024, am
Introduction to the meaning of the Four Noble Truths and how we find the Dharma
“So many people today are trying to get rid of everything way too early on. They are trying to go way too far ahead of themselves and try to play symphonies and concertos without learning how to play pure notes, not learning to hear the essence and know exactly where they are going. So they go like this, ‘I abandon everything to be in a perfect stage of natural samadhi.’ This first section is about how we run away, and why we do not look at the origin and the cause of dukkha (unsatisfactoriness, discomfort, unease, suffering). We do everything but that.”
Listen to Class 1 – The Meaning of the Four Noble Truths
Listen to the Short & Pithy Introduction on The Four Noble Truths
Class 2, July 4, 2024, pm
How we find the Dharma
“How many of you can guarantee that you will be physically blissful for the rest of your life by meditating? We cannot do that, we just don’t know, do we? But your mind—you should know by deep contemplation—even when you are in the midst of [mental] pain or real difficult physical activity, there are moments that can be absolutely beatific. It is not all pain, not all bliss, and not neutral or equanimous; however, it is all mind.”
Class 3, July 4, 2024, am
The General Way in Which We Move Through the Paths of Liberation - Hinayāna
“This preoccupation with ‘me’ being a stable, continuous being that is somehow ok is not something that happens once or twice a day. It is actually happening at a micro-second level. You have to feel that. You have to see and feel it. Not just hear the internal story, feel the tug, feel the pull to be… to be… to be...”
Listen to the Short & Pithy Commentary on
Suffering is mistaking outer objects as being separate from your mind.
Class 4, July 4, 2024, pm
Mahayāna
“If you are a realizer for your liberation or a Hinayāna practitioner you say: ‘I am here to become liberated.’ But a Mahayāna practitioner says, ‘I am actually here to help everybody. How I am, affects every single practitioner in this room. How I am, my degree of liberation, my understanding of Dharma, how I conduct myself, my meditation, actually affect everything around me. So, I have an obligation to be as awake as possible and have not just the awakeness but the compassion—which also means skill—to help other sentient beings.”
Class 5, July 5, 2024, am
Vajrayāna
“All beings’ minds are seed-like Buddha nature (Skt. tathāgatagarbha). All beings and phenomena are pervaded by Buddha nature. Awakeness, its qualities of compassion, are inherent and are the infinite great expanse. This awakeness is called vajra (Skt.) as it can be described by seven adamantine space-like qualities: invulnerable, indestructible, authentic, incorruptible, stable, unobstructed and invincible.
Eight extremes of conceptual elaboration and attachment are vanquished:
1) arising and 2) ceasing, 3) being non-existent and 4) being permanent, 5) coming and 6) going, 7) being multiple and 8) being single.
One relies directly on the qualities inherent and manifesting in one’s living Guru or Lama, our spiritual mentor who has realization of the spontaneous unity of wisdom and compassion, good realization of the three buddha bodies, totality free of any fixations and conceptual constructs.
Listen to Short & Pithy Commentaries on:
The Purpose and Meaning of Thangkas and Religious Implements