Winter storm has moved this class over to Friday night, December 12, just for this week. Same time, same place.
This is course #4 of the Discovering Buddhism program. It’s fine to jump in at the beginning of any of these courses.
We’ll being doing this course in a condensed way – in just 3 sessions – since it’s difficult to schedule things during the holiday season. The Discovering Buddhism program will continue at Land of Medicine Buddha in 2015. There are 14 modules in all.
As for this topic, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in The Heart of the Path:
Why do we need a guru? We might think, “Achieving liberation and enlightenment is fine, but why do I need a guru to do it? As long as books on the subject are available, I can read them, then practice. Why do I need a guru?”
You might think that to generate the path to enlightenment, it’s enough to read Dharma books and study by yourself. However, generally speaking, you can’t clearly understand the meaning of Dharma teachings, especially the hidden meanings that need clarification through commentary, without the explanations of a guru. There is a big difference between learning something from a teacher and just reading about it in a book. Listening to a teacher has a much greater effect on your mind. Being able to parrot the words written in books doesn’t mean that you really understand a subject.
Topics covered in this course include:
- what it means to be a qualified student
- what are the qualifications of a guru
- how to take someone as one of your gurus
- Buddhist protocol for relating to one’s spiritual teachers
- what to do when things go wrong with the guru-disciple relationship
Materials
Materials will be posted on the DB Homework page of this website. The password will be given in class.
See more about the whole Discovering Buddhism program at Land of Medicine Buddha, here.
About the Instructor
Venerable Drimay is currently the regular Discovering Buddhism teacher at Land of Medicine Buddha. She has over ten years’ experience teaching these courses at our Silicon Valley center. See more about our instructors.
Participation
Drop in on the first class to see if it suits you. Online registration below gives various options for donating to support this program. The Dharma center depends on your contributions to make classes like this possible. However, we don’t want anyone to feel that there is an obstacle if they are unable to donate. All are welcome.
Benefits of Membership
Scholar-level membership covers donations for regular classes. Look into becoming a Scholar.
| Date(s): | Thursdays, Dec 4, 11, 18 |
| Times: | 7:00 pm - 8:45 pm |
| Instructor/Leader: | Venerable Drimay |
| Type of event: | Discovering Buddhism |
| Number of sessions: | 3 |
| Level: | Introductory |
| Participation: | Best to start at with the first class of this course. |
| Location: | Main Gompa |
| iCal Link: | iCal |
| Add to Google Calendar: |  |
Registration and Donations for DB4: “The Spiritual Master”
Online registration is now closed for this event.