Mipham, Emptiness & Buddha-Nature
Based upon The Lion of Speech: The Life of Mipham Rinpoche By Dilgo Khyentse and Jamgon Mipham
A Rime Shedra NYC Course
Eight Tuesdays, May 4 to June 29, 2021, 7-9:15 pm
Omitting May 11, 2021; Online via Zoom
This course will focus on the main inspiration for Rime Shedra NYC, Jamgön Mipham Namgyal Rinpoche (1846–1912). Mipham is one of the greatest luminaries of Tibetan Buddhism in modern times. He had a dominant and vitalizing influence on the Nyingma school in particular and, despite spending most of his life in retreat, is one of Tibet’s most prolific authors. We will read the recently published biography of Mipham composed by one of the greatest teachers of the 20th century, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, in the book, The Lion of Speech: The Life of Mipham Rinpoche, ably translated by the Padmakara Translation Committee.
We will also study Mipham’s writings included in this book on madhyamaka and his famous text on buddha nature, Lion’s Roar Discourse on Buddha Nature. In addition, we will also study Mipham’s Lion’s Roar of Other Emptiness (Shentong). Together these two texts present Mipham’s view of the essence of the Buddha’s third turning of the wheel of dharma--Buddha Nature and the ultimate nature of reality as being ‘empty of other’ (shentong).