Kalachakra Yogas Sadhana and Intuition Chapters : Do I Need A Teacher? Tibetan Buddhism Explained Force For Good with Robert AF Thurman Tibet House US New York City 2016
In this short video Professor Thurman explains the Tibetan Buddhist perspective on the need for a teacher when studying and applying the self transformation techniques taught by the historical Buddha.
This video is an archive recording from the 2016 Force For Good: Kalachakra Yogas Sadhana and Intuition Chapters led by Tibet House US President Robert AF Thurman using Vesa Wallace’s translation of “The Kalacakra Tantra – The Chapter on Sadhana, together with the Vimalaprabha Commentary” published by AIBS.
“The external teacher figure in Tibetan Buddhism is considered more of a friend than a mentor. Your esoteric teacher, by contrast, is the one you imagine and visualize to be indivisible from the Buddha himself, someone who is a living exemplar of enlightenment. The mentor figure empowers you, not just to play at self-transformation but actually to realize the teaching, to experience the higher goal state. Thus, “mentor devotion” is a practice of acknowledging or worshiping the Buddha in a model figure of your choice. You envision the mentor as the Buddha and strive to emulate that model until you are able to understand and embody the teaching entirely yourself.”
Robert AF Thurman from “Jewel Tree of Tibet“
Kalachakra Yogas Sadhana and Intuition Chapters with Robert AF Thurman was recorded at the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Sources Class Seventeen of the Force for Good Series with Robert AF Thurman at Tibet House US.
“Kalachakra Yogas Sadhana and Intuition Chapters: Do I Need A Teacher? Tibetan Buddhism Explained with Robert AF Thurman” Photo 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).
This on-going series was inspired by Daniel Goleman’s ‘A Force For Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for Our World‘.
To join the on-going #ForceForGood series please visit: www.tibethouse.us.
To watch more videos from past ‘Force for Good’ programs please visit the Tibet House US Member Archive, available to monthly supporters.
Full access starts at $2 a month.
? Music by Tenzin Choegyal, Used with Permission www.tenzinchoegyal.com
? Describing Mindfulness + Buddhist Meditation Photo by David Gabriel Fischer via Zen Diary.
About Robert AF Thurman
Suggested Books & Audio by Robert AF Thurman:
Man of Peace: Illustrated Life Story of Tibet’s Dalai Lama (Book), Infinite Life: Awakening to Bliss Within (Book), Anger: The Seven Deadly Sins (Book), Inner Revolution (Book), Circling the Sacred Mountain : A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas (Book), Essential Tibetan Buddhism (Book), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between (Book) The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism (Book), The Central Philosophy of Tibet (Book), The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture (Book), Life & Teachings of Tsong Khapa (Book), Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World (Book) & Liberation Upon Hearing in the Between: Living with the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Audio).