This video explores the history of the “Lam Rim: Stages of The Path” a collection of mind training teachings preserved in Tibet & their connection to the Buddhist Tantra. Professor Thurman provides an introduction to these cherished practices as refined + passed down by Tsongkhapa & the Dalai Lama lineage.
Includes a discussion of Gendün Druppa the First Dalai Lama, the centrality of the awareness of the possibility of infinite past + future lives, The Three Kinds of Suffering as presented in Tsongkhapa’s Lam Rim teachings & how these teachings provide a systematized path to prepare one for the study of Buddhist Tantras.
Full Video Concludes with a guided meditation on the exchange of Self + Other, Mother Kindness Recognition & the Causal Steps used in Tsongkhapa’s Lam Rim teachings.
“In the course of upholding the Buddhist tradition in Tibet, we evolved a unique Tibetan tradition of recognizing the reincarnations of scholar-adepts that has been of immense help to both the Dharma and sentient beings, particularly to the monastic community.
Since the omniscient Gedun Gyatso was recognized and confirmed as the reincarnation of Gedun Drub in the fifteenth century and the Gaden Phodrang Labrang (the Dalai Lama’s institution) was established, successive reincarnations have been recognized. The third in the line, Sonam Gyatso, was given the title of the Dalai Lama. The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, established the Gaden Phodrang Government in 1642, becoming the spiritual and political head of Tibet. For more than 600 years since Gedun Drub, a series of unmistaken reincarnations has been recognised in the lineage of the Dalai Lama.”
Dalai Lama via www.dalailama.com
‘A Force For Good’ is a Tibet House US course to further the Dalai Lama’s contemporary world initiatives, from His Holiness’ American Institute of Buddhist Studies and Mind & Life Institute science dialogues (Universe in a Single Atom) and His creation of Abhidharma 2.0 through the “Science for Monks” programs, his “secular ethics” (Ethics for the New Millennium and Beyond Religion), His nonviolent approach to conflict resolution, including His Nobel Peace Laureate activities to seek dialogue and a win-win reconciliation with China in the face of the ongoing ethnicidal policies in Tibet (Freedom in Exile and Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of Tibet’s Dalai Lama) & along with his emphasis on positive activism (A New Reality: Charter of Universal Responsibility).
Gendün Druppa First Dalai Lama Statue Photo by Alain Truong.
This meditation is an excerpt from the Tibet House US #ForceForGood Class Series Video: “Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Sources : Madhyamaka Lam Rim with Robert Thurman“.
To join the on-going #ForceForGood series please visit: http://bit.ly/ForceForGoodFall2017
To watch more videos from past ‘Force for Good’ programs please visit the Tibet House US Member Archive, available to monthly supporters: http://bit.ly/THUSMembership2017
Full access starts at $2 a month.
? Music by Tenzin Choegyal, Used with Permission www.tenzinchoegyal.com
