Explanation of the Eight Worldly Dharmas

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Saturday July 2, 10am - 12noon PST

**Presented via Zoom. Registration required.
“First Saturdays Teachings with Geshe Ngawang Dakpa”

​​Join Land of Medicine Buddha, in collaboration with Tse Chen Ling, as their longtime resident teacher, Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, shares his wisdom and insight on a series of topics beneficial to our minds and our practice. Geshe-la will choose topics as the series progresses, and they’ll be posted here and announced in our eNews and social media. We’re grateful to have a scholar of Geshe Dakpa’s renown offer these teachings to our community! ​Ven. Steve Carlier will provide the English interpretation.

Explanation of the Eight Worldly Dharmas

We all wish for happiness and do not want suffering. Shakyamuni Buddha said in the teachings that if we renounce all our attachment and desire clinging to the pleasures of this life, there is great peace in our mind and we don’t accumulate negative karma. The misery of our life and our bad reputation, all these things, are not experienced—they do not happen.

Practicing Dharma means we renounce suffering and the causes of suffering, giving up the eight worldly dharmas. The eight worldly dharmas generally motivate the actions of ordinary beings. They are listed in four pairs: 1) Praise or criticism; 2) Hearing good or bad news; 3) Gains or losses; and 4) Things going well or poorly. We can feel overly excited when experiencing the first of each pair, and overly depressed when experiencing the second. As we start to renounce the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, the real happiness of our life starts.

Join us as Geshe Ngawang Dakpa gives an explanation of the crucial importance and understanding of how to skillfully navigate these concerns.

ABOUT GESHE NGAWANG DAKPA

Geshe Ngawang Dakpa served as a resident teacher at Tse Chen Ling. He was born in Nakchu, northeast of Lhasa, Tibet and became a monk at the age of ten. At the local monastery of Othok he studied both Dharma and secular subjects extensively before entering Sera Je Monastery eleven years later. He fled Tibet in 1959. Upon his arrival in India, Geshe-la not only continued his monastic studies, but also spent three years at the Sanskrit University in Varanasi, earning an MA with honors. Invited by the Queen of Sikkim, he taught at the University of Sikkim for nearly 20 years before returning to Sera monastery in South India and obtaining his Geshe degree. Additionally, Geshe-la taught in Taiwan before arriving in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR – VEN. STEVEN CARLIER

Venerable Steve Carlier resides at Land of Medicine Buddha, teaching the Basic Program. He has been studying Buddhism since 1977 and was ordained as a Buddhist monk by Lama Zopa in 1979, then receiving full ordination from Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche the following year. He studied for eleven years at Nalanda Monastery in France, and from 1993 to 2004 was one of only a handful of Westerners who have followed the Nalanda (India) tradition of studies at Sera Monastery in India. He has interpreted for several of the great masters of Tibetan Buddhism.

Date(s):	Saturday July 2, 10am - 12noon PST
Times:	10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Instructor/Leader:	Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, Ven. Steve Carlier
Type of event:
Number of sessions:	Once a month
Level:	All are welcome
Participation:	All are welcome
Location:	Online Via Zoom
iCal Link:	iCal
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