Events subject to change, check the our calendar for the latest schedule

9 FEB, SUN

11am – 12:30pm

• Regular Dharma teaching
  • twelve links of dependent arising

1:30 – 2:30pm

• Tibetan Language class 4/6
  • subscripts

12 FEB, WED

6:30 – 8pm

• Meditation and Tara Prayer
  • 20m meditation followed by Tara prayer

16 FEB, SUN

11am – 12:30pm

• Regular Dharma teaching

1:30 – 2:30pm

• Tibetan Language class 5/6

19 FEB, WED

6:30 – 8pm

• Meditation and Tara Prayer
  • 20m meditation followed by Tara prayer

23 FEB, SUN

11am – 12:30pm

• Dharma teaching Q&A

1:30 – 2:30pm

• Tibetan Language class 6/6

26 FEB, WED

6:30 – 8pm

• Meditation and Tara Prayer
  • 20m meditation followed by Tara prayer

28 FEB, FRI

10:00am – 6:30pm

• Losar Open house
  • The Temple is open for the day for visitors to come for Tibetan new year

Previous teaching summary

Feb 2 key points:

Buddha’s three turnings of the wheel of dharma: 

• First Turning at Varanasi: Focused on the Four Noble Truths, taught at a basic level for those with less developed understanding
• Second Turning at Vulture’s Peak: Focused on emptiness, addressed those with sharper intelligence
• Third Turning at Yangpa Chen (Skt. Vaishali): expands on emptiness with the true nature of all phenomena

Touched on the four tenets, their major scholars, and their relation to the three turnings of the wheel

• chedrak mawa (Skt. Vaibhāṣika; Tib. བྱེ་བྲག་སྨྲ་བ་) – first turning
• Dodépa (Skt. Sautrāntika; Tib. མདོ་སྡེ་པ་) – first turning
• semtsam pa (Skt. Cittamātra; Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་པ་) – second turning
• uma pa (Skt. Mādhyamika; Tib. དབུ་མ་པ་) – all three

Geshe la explained how these teachings led to four main schools of Buddhist thought, with particular focus on two major divisions: 

• Theravada (using Pali language) 
• Mahayana (using Sanskrit) 

This division isn’t based on different groups of people, but rather with Mahayana practitioners being more focused on others’ liberation, while Hinayana practitioners focus primarily on self-liberation. 

The talk then detailed the stages of the Mahayana path: 

• Realizing bodhicitta (enlightened mind) and becoming a bodhisattva
• Progressing through the paths:
  • Path of Accumulation 
  • Path of Preparation 
  • Path of Seeing (first bhumi/level) 
  • Path of Meditation (leading through remaining levels)

The two main types of obscurations that must be eliminated: 

• Afflictive obscurations (eliminated by 7th level, leading to arhat status) 
• Cognitive obscurations (worked on from 8th-10th levels) 

Geshe la used the metaphor of cutting down a tree to explain that merely praying or wishing for liberation isn’t enough – one needs the right tools (wisdom understanding emptiness and bodhicitta) and must actively work to eliminate obscurations.