Petros will be offering a free class on Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana) on Friday, October 7th at 7pm. This class will pick off where his “Introduction to Buddhism” class left off, working toward more advanced aspects of practice for those seriously interested in the Dharma.
Location:
Alpha Book Center
4532 N. 7th St.
Phoenix AZ
Friday, 7 October 2011
7:00 pm
Petros will be teaching a free class, “Introduction to Buddhism 1,” on Friday, Sept. 16 at 7pm. The class will cover the fundamental principles of Buddhism for those unfamiliar with it. It is intended to serve as groundwork for future planned classes on more advanced dharma topics such as Vajrayana.
Location:
Alpha Book Center
4532 N. 7th St.
Phoenix, AZ
Date: 16 September 2011
Time: 7:00 pm
Realizing something is empty doesn’t mean we destroy something about that object and create emptiness in its place. Rather, emptiness is the lack of something that never existed to start with. When we meditate on emptiness, we don’t destroy inherent existence, because that never existed. We’re destroying the concept that grasps at inherent existence, what we call self-grasping ignorance.
– Thubten Chodron, from Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig
If we do not take the truths in union, but associate ultimate reality with wisdom and conventional reality with delusion, the inseparable view will be divided. If we separate the nature of appearance and emptiness, we have strayed far from realization of the nature of mind.
– Anyen Rinpoche, from The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhicitta
Because there is no difference between Static and Active Meditation, I have no need for the different stages in the Path. Whatever they may manifest, their essence is Voidness; there is neither mindfulness nor nonmindfulness in my contemplation. I have tasted the flavor of Non-existence; compared to other teachings, this is the highest.
– Milarepa
In relating with the world, there are some very tough questions. What is the world? Whose world is it? What does relating mean? The basic point is that this is nobody’s world, since there is nobody as such. The energy constantly taking place does not belong to anybody but is a natural organic process.
– Chogyam Trungpa, from True Perception: The Path of Dharma Art.
Moreover, to meditate is an illusory thought;
Not to meditate is illusory, too.
It is the same whether or not you meditate.
– Milarepa
Not existence and not nonexistence
Not these two conjoined nor the opposite of this
Freed from four extremes, the truly wise
Are those who keep within the middle way.
– Aryadeva
Neither from themselves, nor from another cause,
Not from both, nor yet without a cause –
Phenomena indeed of any kind
Are never born
– Nagarjuna, from the Mulamadhyamaka-karika
Even though we cannot find anything real, the perception that something is real has its use – it is how we live in the world. The perception that something is not real also has its use – it is how we enter the stream of dharma. But the absence of dharmas makes progress impossible; we still need dharmas to reach the other shore. Thus we renounce self-existence and receive in exchange a body of merit (punya skandha).
– Red Pine, commentary on The Diamond Sutra
