RimeShedra.NYC

Ignorance is the cause of suffering

The goal of the Rime Shedra is to make accessible the vast treasures of Buddhist wisdom to those who wish to progress further in their understanding of the profound principles presented in these advanced Buddhist texts. The understanding of the ultimate nature of reality is the key to liberation. For practitioners this program provides an opportunity to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the nature of reality.  For scholars it provides an opportunity to expand their understanding of Buddhism by cultivating an experiential understanding. The program is based upon the traditional Shedra, or monastic college, curriculum which is the cornerstone of Buddhist education in all of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Bodhisattva Path

This topic is the combination of two of the traditional shedra curriculum topics. The first is the presentation of paths, travelers on those paths, qualities developed, and stages of maturity as presented in the text Abhisamayalankara, or The Ornament of Higher Realization. By studying the nuances of the path, we are able to pull ourselves along the path more quickly and by studying the qualities to be nurtured we are more easily able to develop them.

Along with this text, and in the spirit of the rime tradition, we study the paths and their stages as presented in the abhidharma manuals of the early "Theravadin" schools; and as presented in the Lamrim literature of Tibet, especially Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment and Jigme Lingpa’s Treasury of Precious Qualities; and as presented in encyclopedic compilation texts such as Jamgon Kongtrul’s Treasury of Knowledge.

The second topic that is included here is that of the Pratimoksha vows of the monastic practitioner, however instead of focusing on this topic and studying the traditional core text of this topic, the Vinayasutra by Gunaprabha, here we follow the tradition as it was transformed in Tibet and expand the topic into the study of the three vows, understanding them as precepts for practice by lay practitioners as well as monastic practitioners. The three vows in our version are the refuge vow, the bodhisattva vow, and the samaya vow.

The root texts for the three vows are Sakya Pandita’s A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes and Pema Wangi Gyalpo’s Perfect Conduct. Additionally, we focus on the traditional rules for the bodhisattva as presented in Shantidevi’s Bodhicharyavatara, Atisha’s Seven Points of Mind Training, and Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva by Ngulchu Thogme Zangpo.

Courses:

  1. The History of Buddhism in India

  2. Devotion & Crazy Wisdom

  3. The Knowledge of All Modes

  4. Treasury of Precious Qualities

  5. The Gateway to Knowledge, Part 2

  6. Resting in the Nature of Mind