Buddhist Philosophy Course | Lamrim Introduction | 11 Weeks Winter

Lamrim (Tibetan for the stages of the path to enlightenment) originates from the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni. In the eleventh century, the great Indian saint, Atisha, committed the teachings to writing in a very clear and well-structured text which is just as popular today as it was then. It is a precise, step-by-step explanation of the entire teaching of the Buddha. Later, the famous Tibetan pioneer, Tsongkhapa, provided a more detailed version.

Today, this text has become very popular because it allows Westerners to receive a teaching that is at once concise and complete. Due to its exceptional clarity, it is easily understood and therefore facilitates study and meditation for those wishing to attain enlightenment. Because of the hectic pace of modern life, holding down a job, and raising a family etc., unlike monks and nuns, it is almost impossible to undertake several years of  Dharma studies. For this reason, the Dalai Lama as well as the great masters prefer this text to any of the others. In our course therefore, we will be using Lama Samten’s book, The Essence of the Path to Enlightenment.

An excellent opportunity with this course the teacher Nora from Quebec. You will appreciate the quality of the teaching and the simplicity and joy for life of Nora who will take great care to present all the elements so that your project of finding more happiness through your practice of meditation be a success at short and long term.

This course will be ONLINE with Zoom.

Buddhist Philosophy Course | Lamrim Introduction | 11 Weeks 2022 WINTER  19:00-21:00 (Paris Time)

Teacher Nora Chacon

​Dates : Tuesday night, 10 weeks, From Jan 11th to March 22th

Time : 19h00 - 20:30 France or 13:00 - 14:30 Canada

Cost :  145€ + transaction fees

Teacher Email : nora@paramitamontreal.org 

Petit Nalanda Email : contact@centreparamita.fr or +33 6 43 78 44 09

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The Essence of the Path to Enlightenment

UNDERSTANDING THE SENSE OF THE SUTRAS AND TANTRAS Path to enlightenment 

The Lamrim teaches the stages of the path that leads to the full realization of your potential. "Awakening" is fulfillment, which results when achievement is achieved. The techniques to reach enlightenment are designated by the verb "to walk" which suggests the Way. It is organized in stages and specifies the sequence of exercises, ranging from what the novice must undertake to the final stage of "perfection".

 Program of this Introductory Course

• Preliminary preparations for the practice of meditation and the spiritual guide on the way.
• The precious human life: the extraordinary opportunity we have received.
• The impermanence of all phenomena.
• Taking refuge in the Three Jewels.: entering the path.
• Karma: the law of cause and effect that underlies our interactions in life.
• The Four Noble Truths: Suffering., Its Origin, Its Cessation and the Way to Break It Free
• The twelve interdependent links that keep us in samsara (cycle of existence).
• The development of bodhicitta (awakening spirit)., altruistic intention source of all the happiness in the world.
• Seven Cause and Effect Method to Develop Universal Love, Great Compassion and Bodhicitta.
• Training the mind in seven points according to Geshe Chekawa, allowing to free oneself from the ego.
• The first four perfections: generosity, discipline, patience and joyful effort.
• The fifth perfection: the concentration of which ;
• The nine stages of mental calm, the result of concentration.
• The sixth perfection: the wisdom of emptiness ;
• and the uncommon vehicle: the Vajrayana.

Buddhist writings are classified into three major themes: the nature of the phenomenon, the exercises of spiritual elevation and the results of this practice. They are called the Base, the Way and the Fruit. If you use certain principles as the basis of your practice, the benefits will accrue and, by implementing them, the fruits of the practice will be very useful in achieving your goals.

On the path to enlightenment, what are the ways, the practices to actualize the supreme awakening? Morality (ethics, renunciation), deep meditation (concentration) and wisdom, reinforced by compassion. Buddhist schools are based on compassion. Morality consists in giving up the ten non-virtuous acts: three acts of the body (killing, stealing, having an improper sexual behavior), four acts of speech (lying, slandering, uttering hurtful words and indulging in unnecessary chatter), and three acts of the mind (lust, malice and misguided views). The prohibition against killing concerns human beings and also includes other living beings. It is wrong to hurt any living being. This rule is due to the fact that compassion is the true foundation of Buddhism.

Among the different forms of Buddhism, a current brings together several schools. For them, compassion goes far beyond empathy and extends to the vow to free living beings from suffering across space. This great resolution, the vow to work to achieve enlightenment in order to bring well-being to others, is called "selfless intention to attain enlightenment". Through the practice of morality, deep meditation and wisdom, you can achieve the enlightenment of a Buddha. It is the way of awakening.

Presentation of the noble origin of the teaching

More than two thousand five hundred years ago, the incomparable and compassionate Teacher came to teach the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana in the noble land of India with the sole purpose of relieving sentient beings of their suffering. This teaching was transmitted in an unbroken lineage of masters to the glorious and incomparable Indian teacher, Atisha. During seventeen years, he turned the Wheel of Dharma in an exceptional way and wrote the Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment. The term Lamrim, which is currently used, originates from this text. The Venerable Atisha transmitted all his teachings to his main spiritual son, Tibetan master Dromtonpa. They were then handed down to a lineage of masters, to the founder of an excellent tradition of teaching in Tibet, namely, pioneer Lama Tsongkhapa, and from him to his Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. This is how the teaching spread from India to Tibet.

The fact that this line of transmission has remained perfectly pure and intact is due to the great kindness of the incomparable and compassionate Teacher, the glorious. Atisha, and of the holy Tibetan masters of the past.

Introduction stages of the path to enlightenment

The Lamrim (in Tibetan language), meaning < the stages of the way towards the Awakening >, comes at the origin of the teachings of Buddha Shakyamouni. Subsequently in the 11th century, the great Indian saint Atisha composed the structured text which earned him at the time, and still today, such great popularity. The text, a condensed and gradual explanation of the complete teaching of the Buddha, was later explained in more detail by the great Tibetan pioneer Lama Tsongkhapa of the 14th century.

This text is very popular today because it allows Westerners to receive a teaching that is both complete and condensed from the teachings given by the Buddha. It is intended for all those who wish to undertake a rewarding study imbued with wisdom, and supported by a deep meditation on the steps to follow on the Way that leads to Awakening. Everything is made possible thanks to the clear and inspiring explanations of this text. This is why the great masters, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, teach it to Western students interested in Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy, and who have less time due to work and family, instead of undertaking studies of several years as do monks and nuns.

Although there are different texts and comments from Lamrim, we mainly follow, during this introductory course, the text written by Lama Samten: The Essence of the Path to Awakening in respect of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In this training, you will thus touch on all the subjects of the Buddhist philosophy to have a global understanding of it and thus put into practice in this daily life this way of life on the path of inner Happiness.

Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy

Our present world was born Buddhism about 2550 years ago. Indeed, it was at this moment that Shakyamuni Buddha, who had come to teach in the sacred land of India, appeared. In his immense goodness, he shared with the beings, in all impartiality, the teachings of the three baskets (vinaya, sutra and abhidharma). These instructions respectively allow the practice of the three higher practices of ethics, concentration and wisdom. By his many teachings, the Buddha was able to adapt to the needs, motivations and capacities of each of his disciples.

These teachings were passed on to Maitreya and Manjoushri, respectively to Asanga and Nagarjuna, who passed them on to the two learned lamas, Serlingpa (Suvarnadvipi-Dharmakirti of the Golden Islands) and Rikpékouyouk (Vidyakokila the Elder). These two lineages of teaching, named respectively of the vast practice and the deep sight, were afterwards united in the person of the Indian master Atisha Dipamkara. The latter transmitted them to Tibet splendidly during the last 17 years of his life, knowing how to adapt them to the Tibetan people in order to facilitate their understanding. He transmitted them to his main spiritual son Dromtonpa. These teachings were then kept intact by an unbroken lineage of masters such as the Dalai Lama to the pioneer Lama Tsongkhapa, founder of an excellent tradition presenting the instructions on mental calmness and penetrating vision still very much alive in our time.

It is usually said that all the Buddha's teachings are aimed at attaining enlightenment through the practice of two kinds of meditations: concentration meditation and analytical meditation. The first is aimed at achieving mental calm (samatha), while providing

Calm abiding is the state of mind which pacifies itself by remaining concentrated in a point internally. After having obtained it, it is possible to give birth to penetrating vision : a wisdom discerning each of the phenomena, combined with the bliss of the meditative flexibility induced by the power of analysis.

Calm abiding is therefore the temporary cessation of the delusions of the mind. By calming the mind, it becomes clear. This allows a deep analysis, by penetrating vision, which can definitively eliminate the very root of these disturbances.