This excellent book is also the subject of a 14 week course conducted by the translator and starts Wednesday, December 9, at 8PM EST. Here is a link if you are interested.
Description
This 14-week course will guide participants through the concepts and practices given in Phakchok Rinpoche’s In the Footsteps of Bodhisattvas. We will become familiar with the view, meditation, and conduct of a bodhisattva and explore how bodhisattva training in its myriad forms lays the foundation for the dawning of genuine samadhi. We will also explore how the practices of the Samadhi Raja Sutra fit within the context of Vajrayana practice.
Each week, in addition to reading a chapter from In the Footsteps of Bodhisattvas, we will read supplementary sutras, prayers, and the advice of great masters. Together, we will train in a diversity of methods to open up our experience of samadhi; and in the final classes of the course, we will apply the understanding and training gleaned from Phakchok Rinpoche’s words to the practice of the Treasury of Blessings (The Shakyamuni Buddha Sadhana).
The first session begins on Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 8pm EST and will continue weekly for 14 weeks.
The cost of the course is $108 which helps support Samye and its ongoing activities. We want to make sure that the Dharma is accessible to everyone so if you have financial difficulty, please contact us.
Readings: In the Footsteps of Bodhisattvas will serve as our foundational text and additional reading materials will be provided each week. Video and audio teachings by Phakchok Rinpoche and other Dharma resources are also available on Samye to supplement your personal practice and engagement with the text.
About the Instructor
Jack deTar trains under the guidance of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Phakchok Rinpoche. He tries to serve others, hold in devotion those who have realized the Buddha’s teachings, and become familiar with the mind “as it is.” In that light, Jack wishes to help connect students and practitioners with authentic teachers and provide support for anyone who wants to genuinely study, reflect, and meditate. Jack currently serves as the Shedrub Mandala Coordinator for Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s centers and activities, and as the Executive Director of Rangjung Yeshe Gomde California, a Buddhist retreat center nestled in the forested mountains of Northern California’s Mendocino County. Jack assisted Phakchok Rinpoche with the composition of In the Footsteps of Bodhisattvas , and was subsequently encouraged by Rinpoche to instruct this course on the teachings presented in the book.