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Cinema Shikpo: Longchen Rabjam’s Notions of Mandalas
Fri 18 Feb 2022 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
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.