Next Course: The Progressive Stages of Contemplation on Emptiness

The Progressive Stages of Contemplation on Emptiness: Nyingma and Geluk Presentations of the Major Buddhist Philosophical Systems

An Advanced Buddhist Studies/Rime Shedra NYC Course

Ten Tuesdays from May 15 to July 17, 2018, from 7-9:15 pm

Shambhala Meditation Center of New York

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Meant as the prequel to the theme of the progressive stages of meditation on emptiness, i.e. reality, this course will explore the view and context that supplement that scheme. While for some this material might be viewed as the Nyquil of Buddhist topics, for those “in the know,” this is the very essence of what we bring into our practice of vipashyana meditation. As the Buddha says in the Lankavatara Sutra: “My dharma has two modes, advice and tenets. To children I speak advice and to yogis, tenets.”

The stages of this progression are mapped out into the four schools of Buddhist thought, however, instead of viewing these as literal historically distinct schools, the Tibetan tradition is famous for understanding these as stages that all of us go through in developing our understanding of reality, from naïve realism to subtle essencelessness. This way of viewing the progressive stages provides the foundation for the path of study and practice in our tradition.

In keeping with our characteristically Rime style, in this course we will study presentations of these stages from both the Nyingma and Geluk traditions. For the Nyingma, we will explore Mipham’s Summary of Philosophical Systems, translated by along with commentary by Herbert V. Guenther in his Buddhist Philosophy in Theory and Practice. For the Geluk tradition, we will explore Konchok Jigmey Wangpo’s summary presentation of Jamyang Shepa’s Great Stages of the View in Cutting Through Appearances translated along with commentary by Geshe Lhundup Sopa and Jeffrey Hopkins. Additionally, we will study the extremely helpful introductory contextual material in Buddhist Philosophy by Daniel Cozort and Craig Preston.

Readings will be provided in a sourcebook, available for free as a pdf or in hard copy at cost.

Next Course: The History of Buddhism in India

An Advanced Buddhist Studies/RimeShedra.NYC Course

Ten of the Tuesdays from January 23rd to April 3rd, 2018 (Omitting February 20th; From 7-9:15 pm)

Shambhala Meditation Center of New York

To fully understand the profundity of the Buddha’s teachings it is helpful to also understand its gradual unfolding in this world realm. The view and approach to practice are taught in terms of historical developments over time, and also as a personal evolution of understanding where each stage builds on the insight of the previous. In this course we will explore both traditional and contemporary western scholarly views of this evolutionary historical process. By becoming familiar with the major periods, systems of thought, authors and their texts, we can then understand the core texts of the tradition in a deeper and more experiential way. This will reflect in the stages of our development in understanding the view and our experience of view through practice. Readings will be provided in a sourcebook, available for free as a pdf or in hard copy at cost.

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RimeShedra.NYC’s 12th Year Anniversary

In the summer of 2003, I attended the of first four consecutive summer programs taught by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche on the famous classic by Chandrakirti called Introduction to the Middle Way. Rinpoche gave an amazing presentation on the content of this profound text, both generally and word by word. It was just like the way this text is taught in the traditional Tibetan monastic university, i.e. Shedra, setting. 

I was deeply inspired by his presentation, and the way that he had gathered so many students who otherwise would never go anywhere near this difficult text! I determined to follow his example and also to build on the momentum that he had created in doing this. I decided that I would try to do the same thing–on a lesser scale of course–at our Shambhala Center in NYC, where I was serving as Director of Practice & Study. 

With the help of Nancy Murphy and Michele Laporte as co-teachers and the invaluable support of then director of the center, Deborah Garrett, in the winter of 2004, we began a two-and-a-half-year, five-part series of courses on that same famous and difficult text.  We used the written commentary by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, which his organization had published from his teachings on the text a few years before, and also a commentary by Jamgon Mipham the Great. Our first class had 50 participants! And in the spring of 2005 DKR finally accepted our repeated requests and visited us to address our class! 

When that five-part series was completed, instead of being exhausted and not wanting to study anything so rigorous, most participants wanted to go further in the study of classic Buddhist texts!  And so began the Rime Shedra. 

Over the past twelve years we have held 33 courses, plus two weekend seminars, focused on the traditional classics.  The courses generally consisted of 10 classes each, thus comprising a total of over 330 classes! For each course, there is a detailed syllabus and for most, a sourcebook compilation of the readings, plus many handouts and often additional supplementary sourcebooks. All of these are elegantly posted here, along with recordings of each class since 2009, and as a podcast going forward!

The courses are sorted into the five topics of our Shedra curriculum: Meditation (our innovative replacement for the precepts!), Abhidharma, Pramana, Madhyamaka, and the Path.

Tremendous gratitude to Morgan Sandquist for creating and maintaining the site, to my colleagues and advisors, to all of the over one hundred and fifty participants over the years, and to the Shambhala Center and its many directors and staff for helping make this possible!