Emptiness and The Inner Source of Unhappiness: Training in Ultimate Bodhichitta

“We are like travelers in a desert who exhaust themselves running after mirages, or like someone walking down a road at night mistaking the shadows of the trees for criminals or wild animals waiting to attack.” - Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Modern Buddhism

Emptiness is the way things really are. It is the way things exist as opposed to the way they appear. Emptiness is not nothingness, and it is not just emptying our mind of all conceptual thoughts. Realizing emptiness is the method to release our mind from the ignorance of self-grasping. As the great Yogi Saraha said, “If your mind is released permanently from self-grasping, there is no doubt that you will be released permanently from suffering.” This is because the result of grasping tightly at appearances is that we develop self-cherishing, attachment, hatred, jealousy and other delusions, our mind becomes agitated and unbalanced, and our peace of mind is destroyed.

These classes will introduce emptiness in a practical way, applying an understanding of emptiness to our fears and exaggerations about our body, our self, and other things.

Recommended reading: Modern Buddhism by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. Free download here - https://tharpa.com/us/modern-buddhism-812.html

October 5 - Seeing Through the Illusion: What is Emptiness?

October 12 - Letting Go of our Body Issues: The Emptiness of our Body

October 19 - Who do you Think you Are?: The Emptiness of our I

October 26 - How to Change Everything: The Emptiness That is Empty of Eight Extremes

November 2 - Stop Grasping: Conventional and Ultimate Truths

November 9 - Living Lightly: The Practice of Emptiness in our Daily Activities