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FINDING PEACE An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation |
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Generally we waste our lives, distracted from our true selves, in endless activity. Our lives are lived in intense and anxious struggle, in a swirl of speed and aggression, in competing, grasping, possessing, and achieving, forever burdening ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations. We are fragmented into so many different aspects. We don't know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home. Meditation, then, is bringing the mind home. It is the way to bring us back to ourselves, where we can really experience and taste our full being, beyond all habitual patterns. The purpose of meditation is to awaken in us the sky-like nature of mind, and to introduce us to that which we really are, our unchanging pure awareness, which underlies the whole of life and death. In the stillness and silence of meditation, we glimpse and return to that deep inner nature that we have so long ago lost sight of amid the busyness and distraction of our minds. —Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying "Finding Peace-An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation" offers an opportunity to learn methods of meditation that are simple, yet powerful and profound. They can be practiced by anyone at all, and they are extremely effective for bringing inner strength, peace, compassion and understanding into your life. This course presents a complete, essential instruction on the practice of meditation and is open to everyone, from all walks of life, who would like to learn the basics of Buddhist meditation. It does not matter what religious background you are from, or whether you have no religion at all. |
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PREREQUISITES AND LEVEL OF THIS COURSE
“FINDING
PEACE—An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation” is one of the
entry points to the Rigpa Education Program. Anyone may take this
course, whether you are completely new to meditation, or whether you
have already practiced in a different tradition and would like to
learn the methods taught by Sogyal Rinpoche. The aim of this course is to introduce you to the Buddhist understanding of meditation, to briefly outline the benefits that meditation brings, and to give practical advice on the practice of meditation. The principal focuses of study are:
This course
presents the approach of Sogyal Rinpoche, based on the oral lineage
of instruction and guidance handed down to him by his teachers in
the Nyingma or ‘ancient’ tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
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DISTANCE