11/04/2023
Hello everyone,
Just a reminder that Geshe Pema Dorjee will be teaching at Tibet House beginning Tuesday, November 14th.
Once you register, you can either attend the classes in person or be able to see them online from wherever you are and at a time that is convenient for you.
To register, just click here: https://events.thus.org/programs/essentials-of-tibetan-buddhism-5-days-of-teachings-with-geshe-pema-dorjee/
Below are the details for these teachings:
GPD at Tibet House.png
November 14, 15, 16, 20, 21
6-8pm ET
$25 Per Class | Hybrid
November 14 — Causes of Suffering: self-cherishing, attachments, and afflictive emotions
Self-Cherishing leads to a selfish attitude and selfish desires. Cherishing ourselves is the gateway to harm, especially to our own unhappiness. This is because Self-Cherishing leads to all of our Attachments. Attachments arise when we exaggerate the good qualities of any object. This leads to unrealistic expectations and consequent craving, clinging, neediness,possessiveness, or even obsession with the object. Attachments are the cause of Afflictive Emotions. Afflictive Emotions (also called Destructive Emotions) are the cause of our suffering. Examples of afflictive emotions include self-attachment, greed, anger, hatred, jealousy, resentment, and arrogance.
November 15 — Keys to Happiness: compassion and bodhichitta
Cherishing others is the source of all good mental qualities. True and lasting happiness comes from cherishing others. Compassion is the aspiration to relieve a sentient being from their suffering and its causes. (Loving-Kindness is the wish that someone may enjoy happiness.) Bodhichitta is the altruistic aspiration to achieve Enlightenment in order to relieve all sentient beings from their suffering and its causes. In order to achieve Compassion and Bodhichitta, practice Equalizing and Exchanging (Tong Lin) and The Seven Causes and Effects.
November 16 — Meditation: concentration and analysis
A scattered mind cannot analyze clearly. Meditative Concentration sharpens the mind by training it to focus on any single object for increasingly longer periods of time and with less and less distraction. (Meditative Concentration is also known as single-pointed meditation, calm-abiding meditation, meditative stability, or Shamatha.) Analytical Meditation uses the rational process of analysis to gain knowledge of, to pe*****te, and finally to understand deeply and fully the object of meditation. After listening to and reading teachings on the object of meditation, analytical meditation employs logic and reasoning, investigation and discrimination, questioning and debating, and contemplation and reflection. (Analytical Meditation is also known as Insight Meditation or Vipassana.)
November 20 — The Wisdom of Emptiness: no self, the 2 truths, and the middle way
Ignorance causes Self-Cherishing.
Ignorance is the absence of Wisdom.
Wisdom means realizing Emptiness.
But what is Emptiness? And what does Realizing mean?
What does “no Self” mean? Is there a Self? Is the Self empty?
Do things exist? What are the Two Truths? What is the Middle Way?
November 21 — Achieving Nirvana and Enlightenment
Nirvana is the state of mind that is totally free from your suffering and the causes of your suffering. Attaining this highest state of cessation requires Realizing the Wisdom of Emptiness. Enlightenment (also known as Buddhahood, The Awakened Mind, or Full Awakening) is a state in which all obscurations have been abandoned and all good qualities have been developed limitlessly. Achieving this state requires both Wisdom and Bodhichitta.
Featuring
Geshe Pema Dorjee
Geshe Pema Dorjee was born into a nomadic family in Tibet. When he was a young boy, they escaped from the invading Chinese by walking over the Himalayas in winter at night. After moving to Dharamsala, India he attained an undergraduate degree and two Masters degrees in Buddhist Philosophy. For the next 16 years, he dedicated himself to the Tibetan Children’s Village School where he began as a teacher and then became Principal and finally the Director of the school. As a result of further studies in Buddhist philosophy, he was awarded the Geshe degree, the equivalent of a Ph.D. He was appointed Principal of the Tibetan Teachers Training Center and then the first Principal of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, now called the College for Higher Tibetan Studies. In 2001, the Dalai Lama asked him to revive an important part of Tibetan Buddhism, the Bodong tradition, that was falling into obsolescence. Accordingly, Pema Dorjee founded and became Director of the Bodong Research and Publication Center in Dharamsala where he collected, translated, and published the writings of the Bodong tradition. In addition, he established and still runs a Bodong monastery in Kathmandu where monks are trained in the Bodong tradition (https://www.facebook.com/porong.monastery/). The Tibetan government-in-exile has honored Geshe Pema Dorjee by asking him to undertake various tasks. The Cabinet appointed him to the Higher Level Textbook Review Committee. His Holiness appointed him as a member of the Public Service Commission. The Department of Health appointed him as spiritual counselor to former political prisoners who had been tortured. Geshe Pema Dorjee organizes, directs, and raises funds for his numerous charitable projects. These include establishing schools, orphanages, and a nunnery; creating a safe house for street children; helping young people in Tibetan refugee camps; introducing toilets, safe water, and modern stoves to Himalayan villages (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oXDzzz_wjg); and providing medical care to the sick and injured in these remote villages. Since 1997, he has lectured and taught in countries around the world including Sweden, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Norway, France, Estonia, and Israel. Each year since 2009, Geshe Pema Dorjee has lectured and taught courses in the United States, including New York, Cambridge, Miami, Minneapolis, Portland, and San Francisco.
Dr. Carol Mackauf
President
Tibetan Buddhist Charitable Aid, Inc.
a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation
www.buddhistcharity.org
[email protected]
The Clean Stove Project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oXDzzz_wjg
http://www.buddhistcharity.org/donations.phpOpen fire cookstoves cause death, blindness, and respiratory disease. This video documents one of the humanitaria...
