Dharmapala College

Open to all serious practitioners of the Dharma with a regular practice of meditation.

Asanga’s “Compendium of the Mahayana” (Mahayana-samgraha) is perhaps the earliest prototype for the later Indo-Tibetan “lam-rim” tradition. Carrying forward the older abhidharma project of mapping the mind, It incorporates a comprehensive overview of the complete bodhisattva path.

Through a close reading of key passages from all ten chapters of this work, we’ll gain a solid grounding in the key concepts of classical Yogacara thought and practice.

We will focus on Yogacara as a system of practice, comprising an integrated combination of philosophy, psychology, ethics, meditation, and the bodhisattva ideal. The goal will be to gain of clear understanding of key Yogacara doctrines:

• the alaya-vijnana and its permeation (vasana) by karmic residue or ’seeds’ (bija),
• the three aspects of reality (trisvabha),
• the doctrine of cognitive construction (vijnaptimatrata),
• non-conceptual cognition (nirvikalpa-jnana),
• non-abiding (apratisthita) nirvana,
• the bodhisattvic wisdom “acquired subsequent to that” (tat-prstha-labdha-jnana), and
• the three bodies of the Buddha.

27 October, 6pm, to 03 November, 2pm, at Madhyamaloka, Birmingham
With Saramati and Sagaramati

Suggested donation: £ 240

To ask for further information or to book for this event, please contact us here.

To go back to our 2008 schedule, please click here.