Being a Better Human Being
Suitable for all
Wednesdays 22, 29 September, 6, 13, 20, 27 October @7.30pm
Suggested donation £7 per session.
Buddhism has many techniques that not only have a religious purpose but which also help us to develop our human potential in this life to become better human beings, to become more rounded, more stable, more socially engaged.
Over the course of these six evenings Geshe Tashi will share what personal qualities he feels it is important for us to develop living 21st century lives in modern societies. He will also explain how much of what we need to develop is not specifically religious, nor even Tibetan Buddhist but a part of the wider world heritage of ideas on what it means to be truly human.
Socially Engaged Buddhism
Suitable for all
Wednesdays 3, 10, 17, 24 November and 1, 8, 15 December 2010
Suggested donation £7 per session.
Buddhism is often portrayed as a world denying religion as its prime focus is on removing individual beings from mental distress. In the case of the Mahayana Buddhism it believes in removing all living beings from mental distress, and it believes true happiness to be an internal mental state that does not rely on being triggered by inputs of physical sense data.
But in these days when it is so clear that human impact on the planet and the other species that share it with us is dramatic and so often highly destructive is it really true that Buddhism and Buddhists have nothing to say, no advice to offer on how to live a life with a less harmful impact on our environment and the beings around us? After all the prime directive of Buddhism is Do No Harm
In these evenings Geshe Tashi will share what Buddhism and Buddhists have to say about how to stop causing harm and how to live more harmoniously in the world and with the people and beings around us. In particular he will focus on what each one of us can practically do to make the world a better place for ourselves and everyone that we interact with.
What the Buddha Said
Registration for the first module of the course closes on Friday 4
September and no further applications for that module will be considered
after that date. Please ensure that you have paid your registration in
full before that date to complete your registration for the course
A new structured course by Geshe Tashi running over 20 months
from September 2010 to April 2012
Starting Tuesday 21 September 2010 Geshe Tashi will teach a
new structured learning course in five modules looking at five different
sutras
from the collection of sutras translated into Tibetan called the
Kanjur.
Entitled What the Buddha Said the course will run until April
2012.
The driving force behind Geshe Tashi offering this course is the
often expressed wish of His Holiness the Dalai Lama that Tibetan
Buddhists
study the Indian sources for their religion rather than just relying on
works
written by Tibetans. In this way students get a clearer idea of the
richness of the Indian traditions of practise, which is sometimes lost
in the
simplifications of Tibetan 'school' works
Booking for module one of the course will
open from 10 May 2010. Booking for modules 2, 3 and 4 of the course
will
open on 4 December 2010. Booking for module 5 will open in early
December
2011.
Please find details on the structured courses page.
Simple Meditation
for Beginners
Suitable for those
new to and new in Buddhism
Tuesday
7 & 14 December 7.30pm
Suggested
donation £7 for each evening
On these two evenings of instruction
and practice Geshe Tashi shares simple, practical and yet profound
mediation techniques that can be practiced by anyone whether religious
or not, whether Buddhist or not.
Meditation is a very helpful tool to help us deal better with the
stresses and strains of modern life and to better know ourselves. There
are basically two types: those that gently place the attention closely
on an object and help it it to stay unwaveringly with the object for
longer and
longer periods; and those that pay close attention to the momentary
things and events that make up our daily life experience so that we can
better understand our self and our life situation.
The Two Truths in Hinayana
Suitable for those new in and those settled in Buddhism¨
Saturday 17 October 10am - 5pm
Suggested donation donation £25 (includes lunch and
the follow-on evenings).
followed by three
Thursday student led study evenings on 28
October, 4 and 11 November
The Madhamaka teaching on the two truths gives important insights into how we relate with the world around us, how our ordinary perception of the way things are is out of kilter with reality, and the understanding we need to develop to change that.
This Saturday
Geshe Tashi will explore in more depth the ideas of the so called Hinayana schools of North Indian Buddhism on what really and truly exists and what does not. The meditative insights contained in the propositions of the Vaibasika school and the Sautrantika school on our experiences and how real or undeceptive (true)
they are form
key steps on the path to freedom through insight. These schools propositions on the role of understanding through direct perception and the role of understanding through conception, despite its veiling mediating quality give important insights into the way we construct miserable situations for ourselves and how we can minimize and break out of those patterns.
For those interested in the Mahayana schools teachings on the Two Truths, in order to understand their ideas properly you need to understand why and how they critique the propositions put forward by the two lower schools. For those who have completed Geshe Tashi's Foundation of Buddhist Thought course and its companion course on Two Truths in Mahayana this is an opportunity to revisit their understanding of this key teaching with him and to ask clarifying questions. For those who have not taken the course, this gives an introduction to a key method of liberating analysis as presented in Geshe Tashi's practical accessible style.
The Two Truths in Mahayana
Suitable for those new in and those settled in Buddhism
Weekend of Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 November 10 - 5pm
Suggested donation £60 (includes lunch and the follow-on evenings).
followed by three
Thursday student led study evenings on 25
November, 2 and 9 December
Designed as a companion course for the Two Truths in Hinayana in this course Geshe Tashi will look at the Mind Only School's critique of the propositions of the two lower schools on reality and at this school's ideas on what really and truly exists. He will also look at how having a Mind Only view of reality can be used to minimize and eradicate problematic mental states and behaviour.
He will look at the Madhyamika School's critique of the propositions on the reality of our experience put forward by all the three previous schools. He will also explore the propositions the Madhyamika put forward about the reality of our lives, the way we experience them, the fundamental mistaken assumptions we habitually make in our daily lives, and how we can minimize and correct them.
