In this final course of Master Kamalashila: Meditations on the Diamond Cutter Sutra, Geshe Michael Roach teaches the deepest meanings of ultimate reality and how to reach those states using a series of meditations from Master Kamalashila's commentary. Each meditation is designed to increase and stabilize our understanding, step-by-step.
Based on the great Tibetan Classic, A Gift of Liberation: Thrust into the Palm of Our Hand written by Pabonka Rinpoche, this retreat focused on using death meditation to reinvigorate your life and your practice and included the popular 3 day “Retreat within a Retreat”. This 10-day installment finished the portion of the text describing the animal and hell realms, included a beautiful death meditation and began the section of the Lam Rim which discusses the beautiful practice of going for refuge.
Based on the great Tibetan Classic, A Gift of Liberation: Thrust into the Palm of Our Hand written by Pabonka Rinpoche, this retreat focused on using death meditation to reinvigorate your life and your practice and included the popular 3 day “Retreat within a Retreat”. This 10-day installment finished the portion of the text describing the animal and hell realms, included a beautiful death meditation and began the section of the Lam Rim which discusses the beautiful practice of going for refuge.
Based on the great Tibetan Classic, A Gift of Liberation: Thrust into the Palm of Our Hand written by Pabonka Rinpoche, this retreat focused on using death meditation to reinvigorate your life and your practice and included the popular 3 day “Retreat within a Retreat”. This 10-day installment finished the portion of the text describing the animal and hell realms, included a beautiful death meditation and began the section of the Lam Rim which discusses the beautiful practice of going for refuge.
In this series of classes, Geshe Michael dives deeper into the subject of protection using a famous book called The Necklace of Understanding (Abhisamayalankara), which was revealed by Maitreya to Arya Asanga, in which he teaches about what it means to take refuge by covering the following three topics: 1. What it means to go for refuge, 2. Where you go for refuge (The Three Jewels), and 3. The Four Bodies of a Buddha.
Based on the great Tibetan Classic, A Gift of Liberation: Thrust into the Palm of Our Hand written by Pabonka Rinpoche, this retreat focused on using death meditation to reinvigorate your life and your practice and included the popular 3 day “Retreat within a Retreat”. This 10-day installment finished the portion of the text describing the animal and hell realms, included a beautiful death meditation and began the section of the Lam Rim which discusses the beautiful practice of going for refuge.
This is the second in a four-part series based on Master Kamalashila’s commentary on the Diamond Cutter Sutra led by Geshe Michael Roach. This retreat provided a unique opportunity to delve deeply into rarely taught meditations on emptiness. The retreat consisted of morning sessions led by Geshe Michael Roach followed by individual practice in the student's private retreat cabin.
Each step along the spiritual path should be taken in its proper sequence to bring one to the end of the path. This meditation reviews the steps of the path and the order in which to move through those steps. We visualize the mandala of the Lam Rim, contemplating each and every step of the path, as we travel through the rooms of the mandala in the same order that one should progress through their spiritual practice. By visualizing the spiritual path as a mandala, and seeing ourselves journeying through the rooms of the mandala, we deeply internalize the stages of the path.
This is an excellent meditation practice to develop a caring attitude in our hearts toward everyone in our lives, especially those that we have difficulty with. And it’s a wonderful meditation to do when one has an illness, to cultivate empathy, or to generate happiness. Tong Len practice cultivates love and compassion for ourselves, those we are indifferent toward, and those who harm us. It’s a great way to learn to be kind to yourself and others.
This Seven-Point Lojong is based upon the Advices for Training Oneself in the Greater Way by Geshe Chekawa (1101-1175), and contains many powerful advices on how to practice thinking and acting like a bodhisattva. These teachings and practices were kept secret for centuries because masters of the past did not want their seemingly mystical verses to be misunderstood. This topic was covered twice, each time with a different emphasis, and both versions have been provided.
Karmically, every instance of negativity we generate towards others will definitely come back to us as a similar unpleasant, painful experience in our lives. The good news is that it’s possible to purify and remove the past negative karma we collected, before it can ripen upon us as our own personal suffering and pain. This practice teaches how to clean up and purify our past negativity to prevent that old bad karma from ripening upon us as difficulties, problems, pain, or suffering in our life.
The Heart Sutra is one of the most popular prayers in Buddhism. It contains seemingly mystical, impenetrable verses that describe how reality does exist, and the way in which it does not exist. This meditation penetrates into the real meaning of the sutra, which describes how our very nature, including our bodies, minds and identities are not what they appear to be. We meditate on the very nature of ultimate reality (emptiness) to discover where things come from and how they really exist. This is an excellent introductory overview meditation on emptiness.
The Heart Sutra is one of the most popular prayers in Buddhism. It contains seemingly mystical, impenetrable verses that describe how reality does exist, and the way in which it does not exist. This meditation penetrates into the real meaning of the sutra, which describes how our very nature, including our bodies, minds and identities are not what they appear to be. We meditate on the very nature of ultimate reality (emptiness) to discover where things come from and how they really exist. This is an excellent introductory overview meditation on emptiness. This topic was covered twice, each time with a different emphasis, and both versions have been provided.
This meditation practice focuses on understanding ultimate reality (emptiness) on a more advanced level. Mahamudra is meditation on the ultimate nature of one’s own mind. We meditate on our mind, examining it on six different levels, each one leading to a more sophisticated understanding of our mind and its nature. Meditating on the ultimate nature of one’s own mind is an important part of a larger practice that leads to the direct perception of ultimate reality. The direct experience of ultimate reality is a key meditative realization that assures very quick enlightenment.