Study program on the book:
The Words of my Perfect Teacher
by Patrul Rinpoche
A 15-session course led by Pierre Orgyen Cardinal under the guidance of Acharya Choying Gyurmey
IN PERSON ONLY
Course offered in French: Saturdays, beginning January 11, 2025 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., with 2 x 15 min. breaks
Course offered in English: Sundays, beginning January 12, 2025, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., with 2 x 15 min. breaks
This program is open to all, but most beneficial to those who already have a basic knowledge of Buddhism.
During our first session, we will contemplate the proper way of listening to the teachings put forth by the great Rime (non-sectarian) 19th-century scholar, Patrul Rinpoche (1808-1887), who was a master of several of our contemporary teachers.
We will then explore what it means to commit oneself to the practices of Ngöndro known in English as the Preliminary Practices.
The 15 sessions of this program will allow us to delve into the following topics:
- The ordinary or external preliminaries
- The difficulty of finding the freedoms and advantages
- The proper way to listen to spiritual teaching.
- The teaching itself: an explanation of how difficult it is to find the freedoms and advantages
- The impermanence of life and the uncertainty of the time of death
- The defects of saṃsāra, and the various forms of suffering found therein
- Actions (karma): the principle of cause and effect
- The benefits of liberation
- How to follow a spiritual friend (kalyāṇamitra)
- The extraordinary or internal preliminaries
- Taking refuge, foundation stone of all paths
- Arousing bodhicitta, the root of the Great Vehicle (Mahāyāna)
- Meditating and reciting on the teacher as Vajrasattva to cleanse all obscurations
- Offering the maṇḍala to accumulate merit and wisdom
- Guru Yoga, entrance-way for blessings, the ultimate method for arousing the wisdom of realization
Classes will be structured, dynamic and participatory. Engagement and attendance are vital.
NOTE: The 15 sessions of this program will not always by on consecutive Sundays, as other major Rigpe Dorje Centre activities may be scheduled on some weekends
Suggested donation for this 45-hour course:
$200 for members / $225 for non-members.
“Early bird registration” by December 15, 2024:
$185 for members / $210 for non-members
Payment is expected at registration. To encourage diligent participation, a 20% rebate will be given to participants who attend all 15 sessions.