From Heart of Buddha: Mandalas and Longchen Rabjam’s Notions of Mandalas (Oxford 2015)
And it’s said in the Buddhadharma that this sense of the un-satisfactoriness of everything is much greater than we imagine. The reason why it doesn’t seem so universal at first is because we manage to shut our eyes to a lot of the unhappiness, the miseries of the world. Not only the world in general – which you can see plenty of just by switching on your television – but actually in your own life, you ignore as well in the way that I just indicated.
But in Buddhadharma, the thing is to try and develop your insight so that it goes very deep, so you understand impermanence more and more. And as you understand impermanence more and more, you understand more the un-satisfactoriness of the clash between our hopes and fears and projections, our wishes, our dreams and so on and the actual – somewhat to us seems harsh – reality of things, the un-satisfactoriness of things, the insecure nature of things.
And that’s sometimes said to be the second sign of being, which gradually is revealed to you more and more, that the more you cling to the world, the more you try to hold on to it, the more you try to configure it the way you want, against all the odds, it just causes more pain. And that we do this all the time. So, it’s like we have an investment in stupidity. The more stupid we are, the more we feel we might get away with painful things seeming not too bad. Fortunately, Buddhism doesn’t believe in stupidity.
Friday, February 18, 2022: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm United Kingdom time
Join the Longchen Foundation for a public viewing on Zoom of the second talk of Rigdzin Shikpo’s Heart of Buddha 2015 teaching on Mandalas and Longchen Rabjam’s Notions of Mandalas.
The Zoom session will begin with 10 minutes of formless meditation, followed by the streaming of Rigdzin Shikpo’s teaching together with Q & A – somewhat around an hour and 10 minutes total. Attendees are welcome to remain after for some discussion and reflection.
Here is the Zoom Link (Meeting ID: 893 2214 5627)
If you plan to attend this teaching, please support the work of the Longchen Foundation by donating £10 or so to the General Fund.
Questions? Please contact Andrew at andrewjmunro@gmail.com.
Longchen Together Continues on Sundays
Don’t forget that the Longchen Foundation community continues to meet Sundays at 5:00pm UK time for 40 minutes of formless meditation and some group discussion. This meeting is open to anyone who has attended at least Lion’s Roar Gate 2 and is a great opportunity to meet a few members of the Longchen Foundation mandala. For more information and the zoom link contact events@longchenfoundation.org.
Forthcoming Lion’s Roar Events
Congratulations to all the students who recently attended Lion’s Roar Gate 3. We will have a forthcoming Lion’s Roar retreat scheduled for June 6th to the 12th and which will take place online. This is an opportunity to practice and meditate together as a group accompanied by the guidance and teachings from one of the senior Longchen Foundation teachers. This retreat will cover the practices of the first year and is open to anyone who has attended Gate 3. Practicing the teachings in a more focused way can help develop a greater comfort and intimacy with the meaning of the teachings of the first year of the Lion’s Roar. We will have more information and registration details soon.
Then early in the fall, the Lion’s Roar continues with Gate 4 with more focused teachings on mind component of the formless meditation practice. This weekend is scheduled to take place September 10th and 11th and we expect it to take place online. We will have registration details available later in the summer. For any information about the Lion’s Roar programme, please contact tlr@longchenfoundation.org.
We also currently offer a weekly practice group for anyone who has attended Lion’s Roar Gate 3 at any time in the past. This is an opportunity to practice the Lion’s Roar teachings together as a group. For more information, see the events here: https://www.longchenfoundation.org/event/lr-practice-group-spring-2022/all/.