Special Dharma Classes

 

 

Geshe Kalsang Rapgyal offers special classes throughout the year for students interested in deepening their understanding of the Dharma.  These classes require registration, which is accessible at the link following them.

Special Teaching on the Four Great Preliminaries with Geshe Kalsang Rapgyal

Sunday, May 22 – July 31, 2022, 1:00 – 2:30pm

Via Zoom or In-Person with Covid-Precautions*

For the benefit of our Center’s dharma practitioners, we have arranged the following special teaching topic for 2022.

Geshe la will offer instruction teachings with the practices. He invites dharma practitioners and other people with interest to participate in these upcoming sessions.

The four preliminaries of great Genden Mahamudra (Great Seal) are

  • Instruction on Refuge practice – the doorway to Buddhism
  • Instruction on Bodhichitta (Altruism) practice – the doorway to the great vehicle
  • Instruction on Vajrasattva practice – for the purification of obstacles
  • Instruction on Mandala practice – for the accumulation of positive merits as supporting factors

As Geshe Chekhawa mentioned at the very beginning of ‘The Seven Point Mind Training” – “First, train in the preliminaries” – the preliminary practices are extremely important for the Buddhist practitioners. Panchen Lobsang Choegyen in his “Mahamudra Root Text” also affirmed this by saying:

“... first, in order to enter the gateway and erect the supporting pillar of the teaching in general and the Mahayana in particular, exert yourself in going for refuge and arousing awakening mind, not just by paying lip service with words alone.  Also, since seeing the real nature of mind depends on collecting merit and purifying obscurations, prepare as much as possible through reciting the hundred-syllable mantra a hundred thousand times, confessing your moral lapses hundreds of times, and making as many prostrations as possible. Then make heartfelt appeals again and again to your root guru, who is inseparable from all the buddhas of the three times.”

Registration is required for attending both In-Person or via Zoom. Registered students will receive access to the text and any additional class materials. These conditions are requested of all interested in this class:

  • study of and experience with Shamatha meditation and Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy
  • an intention to practice
  • a commitment to attend 80% of classes, and to bring the text to each session

If registering to join by Zoom, please plan to join with your device video turned on to enhance the teacher and class interaction.  *Covid-Precautions: Masks are required at all times inside the center. No food or beverages, please.

Geshe Rapgyal offers this special teaching for the benefit of the students. In gratitude and support of a dharma center from which to teach, we ask that students offer $150 for this class. Please register by May 16 at DrepungGomangUSA.org or by calling 502-614-5616.  If this financial offering constitutes a significant hardship, please contact us for an arrangement that works for you.

For info email Anne at [email protected].

LEARN MORE HERE

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