The Practice of Shamatha-Vipashyana Meditation From Jamgon Kongtrul to Trungpa Rinpoche
Eleven Tuesdays, January 19 to April 6, 2021, 7-9:15 pm
Online via Zoom until further notice
In this course we will explore the practice of shamatha-vipashyana as it is presented in the Kagyu lineage, with the main emphasis upon vipashyana. We will focus on the presentations of this practice by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye in his famous Treasury of Knowledge and by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in selections from many of his writings, especially The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma. Jamgon Kongtrul skillfully presents the condensed essence of the system developed over almost 2500 years starting with the Buddha and then presented in texts by Nagarjuna, Kamalashila, Atisha, and Tsongkhapa. While aspects of this tradition, especially the practice of vipashyana, are cryptic in Kongtrul’s presentation, they are very helpfully expanded upon by many other great teachers of the Kagyu Mahamudra tradition. Through exploring these, we will find that Trungpa Rinpoche presented much of the same material but in his own unique way and also expanded significantly on the traditional version.