The four Noble Truths was the first set of teachings given by Shakyamuni Buddha at Deer Park, Varanasi. Geshela will walk us through each of the noble truths and show us its relevance to our daily lives.

The Nature of the Mind is an opportunity to delve into understanding the mind, its nature and how it functions. By understanding the nature of our mind, we see how our view and/or attitude, perceptions and interpretations can affect how we can create suffering or experience happiness in our lives.

Emotions add color to our lives. The nature of that color, however, depends on the type of emotion that arises and how we deal with it. Geshela will talk about the various types of afflictive emotions like anger, attachment, pride, ignorance to help us recognize these emotions when they arise and how to use the energies of these emotions constructively to benefit self and others.

Do past and future lives exist? Does what I do today affect my life tomorrow and in future? What happens when one dies? Do we dissolve into nothingness or does life continue after death?
With logic, reasoning and case examples, Geshela will help us explore these questions to gain deeper understanding and insights into this topic.

The Twelve Links of Dependent-Arising, as featured in the Wheel of Life Thangka paintings, describe the process through which our karma and afflictions keep us bound in samsara lifetime after lifetime. However, it also describes the process by which we can break this cycle, put an end to our suffering and attain liberation. Join us this weekend to discover more about this fascinating process and explore meditations centred around this topic.

This course is designed for Tibetan Mental Health Professionals and graduate students, but is open to everybody who is interested in this topic. The course will be taught in Tibetan by Geshe Ngawang Theckchock. Geshe-la will focus on how to develop calm abiding and guide participants in meditations to deepen their mindfulness and build awareness.

For more information on the course, click here

Compassion and loving-kindness serve us well and yet they may often seem in short supply, unstable and limited as we face the challenges of life. While our capacity to access these innate qualities can indeed seem easy to disturb, nonetheless, because they are innate, they can be developed and stabilized.

It is often slow, yet it is sure. A worthy investment of our time and energy. Developing confidence in our ability to show up with compassion and loving kindness is key to our success and to heal our own suffering. It is the foundation of the path that brings us home, to our heart, to genuine happiness that just naturally supports all others too.

During this teaching weekend there will be a two special guests; on Friday evening Venerable Roibina Courtin will join the session, and on Saturday afternoon there is a Q & A with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.

For more information on this teaching weekend, click here

The six perfections consist of generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration and wisdom.
Together they form the complete set of practices of the Bodhisattvas in which they train in order to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. However, these practices are not only for Bodhisattvas
– join us this weekend to discover how we too can develop these qualities in our day-to-day life, as well as learning how to stop engaging in their opposites: miserliness, anger laziness, and so forth.

Going for refuge to the Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma and Sangha—is an important part of the daily practice for Buddhist practitioners. Join us this weekend to find out more about the meaning of the Three Jewels, what it actually means to take refuge or to go for refuge, and the practice of going for refuge can become a stable foundation for one’s practice.

Based on Togme Sangpo’s text of the same name, we will be looking at how one becomes a Bodhisattva and the incredible practices Bodhisattvas engage in to generate altruism and compassion for all living beings. Both inspirational and immediately applicable to our own practice, we will see how to apply these teachings to our day-to-day life.

All the teaching weekends are from Friday afternoon until Sunday after lunch.