2016, News
The Bodhimarga organization will be handling the scheduling and registration for Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi's Dharma teaching events throughout the country at this time. Please go to their website to find out about the latest events with Ven. Tenzin. -- Bodhimarga.org
2015, September Retreat
Meditations on
Parting From the Four Attachments
“These Teachings are essential to anyone wanting to genuinely enter the practice of Dharma. Freeing oneself from the four attachments allows the sincere practitioner to recognize and avoid typical pitfalls encountered on the spiritual path and can help alleviate personal suffering caused by ignorance and confusion. The session will consist of teachings, meditation, and discussion”.
Saturday and Sunday, September 12 & 13, 2015
Saturday 10am-Noon & 2pm - 4pm, and Sunday 10am-12noon
Friday Evening, September 11, 2015 (7pm-9pm):
Informal Discussion & Public Talk
LOCATION:
EMID Rancho Embarcadero Center
224 Vereda Leyenda, Goleta, CA 93117
2015, Jan 30 - Feb 5, Weeklong Retreat
The Emptiness of Emptiness
Weeklong Retreat with Ven Tenzin Priyadarshi
January 30 to February 5, 2015
La Casa de Maria Retreat Center, Montecito, CA
"Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form.
Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness.
In the same way feeling, perception, formation and consciousness are emptiness."
A week long intensive retreat on the understanding, practice, and realization of emptiness. This retreat will provide an opportunity to understand the conceptual framework of emptiness as it was presented and discussed in the literatures of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajryana schools. Participants will then proceed to deconstruct this conceptual framework to encounter emptiness “face to face”— proceeding to a naked awareness of no “face to face”.
The retreat will explore emptiness through teachings, discussions and meditation practices. Beginners and advanced students are encouraged to attend.
Suggested Readings (in any available language): The Heart Sutra; Acharya Nagarjuna’s “Verses of the Middle Way” (mulamadhyamika-karika)— “Seventy Stanzas of Emptiness” (“sunyata-saptatih).
2014, November, Retreat and Public Talk
On Bodhicitta
A One Day Retreat with Ven Tenzin Priyadarshi
Sunday, November 9, 2014
9am to 4:30pm
University of California Irvine
Graduate Resource Center (GRC)
3100 Gateway Study Center
Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi will give commentary combining the two texts "Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea" by Khunu Lama, and "Verses of the Middle Way (Mulamadhyamaka-karika)" by Arya Nagarjuna; and show us how to apply these teachings to our daily lives.
"When Buddhas and Bodhisattvas thought,'What is the means that lets one obtain easilythe supreme stage, where the two extremes(of samsara and nirvana)have been abandoned?'They saw that it was this precious Bodhicitta."
Khunu Lama praises the many aspects of Bodhicitta, the Mind of Awakening, through image and metaphor. Bodhicitta is the heart of the Mahayana Buddhist path to complete enlightenment, and generating it within oneself brings together the two necessary cultivations that lead to Buddhahood: attention to the needs and sufferings of others, and realization of that view of reality which is unique to Buddha’s teachings.
"Whatever is dependently co-arisenthat is explained to be emptiness.That, being a dependent designation,is itself the middle way."
Nagarjuna analyses the nature of reality from many angles and reveals different aspects of the Middle Way view. It is a way in-between our usual confused entanglement in life the way we ordinarily perceive it, and the other extreme of complete escapism through achieving a state of private peace, detached from the world; in-between believing things really exist the way we perceive them, and the other extreme, thinking that things don’t exist at all.
Nagarjuna is a central figure in Buddhism. He is considered to be a pioneer of the Mahayana, and an originator of the Madhyamaka tradition through his critical analyses and presentations of many Buddhist concepts, especially the view of "Emptiness".
Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen Negi, a contemporary Indian Buddhist sage, kept a journal of his reflections on Bodhicitta, which was collected into the present text. Sogyal Rinpoche said that “To hold in your hands Khunu Rinpoche’s own words on bodhicitta is to be given a priceless opportunity – of touching the heart of a master who had made it the guiding light of his entire life…whenever I think of Khunu Rinpoche, I always say to myself, this is what St. Francis of Assisi must have been like”.
The retreat will consist of commentary on these texts, meditation, question and answer, and opening and closing prayers.
It will be held in a classroom setting. Chairs will be available. Bring your own cushion if you want to sit on the floor. There may be Khata offering at the end of the retreat.
The texts to be used are "Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea: verses in praise of Bodhicitta" by Khunu Rinpoche; and “The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way,” translation and commentary by Jay L. Garfield. Both are in print and available at bookstores.
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Transforming the Inner and the Outer:
Conversations on Sustainable Spirituality
A Public Talk by Ven Priyadarshi
Monday, November 10, 2014
4pm-5pm
Wallace All-Faiths Chapel
Chapman University, Orange, CA.
2014, June 13-15
Buddha Nature
June 13-15, 2014
Santa Barbara, CA
In Mahayana Buddhism, the Tathagatagarbha sutras are considered to be the earliest expression of the original concept of Buddha Nature.
Buddha Nature refers to the realization that all sentient beings, without exception, have the same essential nature and potential for enlightenment. Just as clouds temporarily cover the sun, so too can ignorance temporarily obscure our Buddha Nature and hinder our development of compassion and wisdom. Meditation practice can allow us to see the true nature of things and develop these naturally present seeds of enlightenment.
Friday: 7pm to 9pm, Saturday: 10am to 4pm, Sunday: 10am to noon
Flyer
2013, September 28-29 Retreat
Exposition on Bodhicitta
The Bodhicittavivarana by Nagarjuna
September 28-29, 2013
The Bodhicittavivarana by Nagarjuna
September 28-29, 2013
Saturday 10:00am to 4:30pm
Sunday 9am to noon
Chapman University, Orange CA.
Beckman Hall, Rm. 214
Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi will give a commentary on the work by Nagarjuna called the Bodhicittavivarana and show us how to apply these teachings to our daily lives.
“It is with a mind moistened by compassion
that you must cultivate the awakening mind with effort.”
In this text Nagarjuna presents reasons for generating within oneself the compassionate mind which seeks complete enlightenment, called Bodhicitta, which arises out of a correct view of ultimate truth.
The text starts by presenting a sequence of reasonings that reveal the Middle Way between extreme views of reality. This view has come to be called the Madhyamaka, which identifies the ultimate truth as “emptiness”.
The text then delves into reasonings showing why one must combine the Wisdom realizing emptiness with extensive compassionate concern and action for others' welfare. Nagarjuna tells us that “By understanding the truth one attains freedom”, but goes on to show that: “The true Awakening that is the sole fruit of altruism – this the conqueror's children cultivate.” To become a child of the Buddhas, a Bodhisattva, one must cultivate Altruism along with Wisdom.
Predicted by Buddha Shakyamuni, one of the Six Ornaments, a Second Buddha, Master and Abbot of Nalanda, philosopher, alchemist, Maha-Siddha - Nagarjuna is a central figure of Mahayana Buddhism. From the watery world of the Nagas, he retrieved the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and with his commentaries upon it, pioneered the Mahayana, and began the Madhyamaka tradition which sharpened the focus on many Buddhist concepts, especially the view of "Emptiness".
Beckman Hall, Rm. 214
Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi will give a commentary on the work by Nagarjuna called the Bodhicittavivarana and show us how to apply these teachings to our daily lives.
“It is with a mind moistened by compassion
that you must cultivate the awakening mind with effort.”
In this text Nagarjuna presents reasons for generating within oneself the compassionate mind which seeks complete enlightenment, called Bodhicitta, which arises out of a correct view of ultimate truth.
The text starts by presenting a sequence of reasonings that reveal the Middle Way between extreme views of reality. This view has come to be called the Madhyamaka, which identifies the ultimate truth as “emptiness”.
The text then delves into reasonings showing why one must combine the Wisdom realizing emptiness with extensive compassionate concern and action for others' welfare. Nagarjuna tells us that “By understanding the truth one attains freedom”, but goes on to show that: “The true Awakening that is the sole fruit of altruism – this the conqueror's children cultivate.” To become a child of the Buddhas, a Bodhisattva, one must cultivate Altruism along with Wisdom.
Predicted by Buddha Shakyamuni, one of the Six Ornaments, a Second Buddha, Master and Abbot of Nalanda, philosopher, alchemist, Maha-Siddha - Nagarjuna is a central figure of Mahayana Buddhism. From the watery world of the Nagas, he retrieved the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and with his commentaries upon it, pioneered the Mahayana, and began the Madhyamaka tradition which sharpened the focus on many Buddhist concepts, especially the view of "Emptiness".
Retreat in Santa Barbara, April 5-7, 2013
Teachings Hosted by the Santa Barbara Group
Public Talk
Finding Happiness from Within
Friday, April 5, 2013 7 to 9 pm
Rancho Embarcadero Center
224 Vereda Leyenda, Goleta, CA 93117
The chase for happiness persists. Some chase happiness in socially acceptable ways that include acquisition of more and better things, better jobs, and relationships. Others chase it in darker places through altered mental states provided by an array of addictive substances. But what is clear is that these substitutes are mostly counterfeit and provide fleeting happiness at best.
A step towards deep, sustaining happiness begins when an individual shifts the focus from his or her wants alone - called self cherishing in the Buddhist tradition - to concern about the welfare of others. St. Francis of Assisi is attributed as saying, “For it is by self forgetting that one finds happiness…..” and, Shantideva, the 8th Century Indian Pandita said something similar, “All happiness comes from a desire for others to be happy; all misery comes from the desire for oneself to be happy”. In this talk we will discuss some meditation techniques that incorporate these ideals and help in developing serene contentment.
Free to public.
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Weekend Retreat
Glimpses of Emptiness
A retreat on selected chapters of Acharya Nagarjuna's
"Mulamadhyamikakarika"
(Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way)
April 6-7, 2013
Saturday, 10am to noon & 2 to 4pm
Sunday, 10am to noon
Rancho Embarcadero Center, Goleta, CA
The Buddhist monk scholar Nagarjuna, who lived in South India in approximately the second century CE, is undoubtedly the most important, influential, and widely studied Mahayana Buddhist philosopher. His many works include texts addressed to lay audiences, letters of advice to kings, and a set of penetrating metaphysical and epistemological treatises. His greatest philosophical work, the Mulamadhyamikakarika - read and studied by philosophers in all major Buddhist schools of Tibet, China, Japan, and Korea - is one of the most influential works in the history of Indian philosophy. This retreat will explore this seminal text on the Middle Way and Shunyata.
“Whatever is dependently co-arisen
That is explained to be emptiness.
That, being itself a dependent designation,
Is itself the Middle Way”
Suggested Donation $75.
Please arrive before 9AM on Saturday for Retreat registration and to choose your seat.
We will begin promptly at 10 am.
*All proceeds will go directly to Prajnopaya Institute and Foundation, a 501(c) (3).
No one will be turned away for lack of ability to donate.
Please call Susie Koesterer with any questions, concerns, or for directions.
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