Sravasti Abbey is among the first of its kind: an American monastic community where aspiring monks and nuns and serious lay students can learn to practice the Buddha's pure Dharma. Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron founded Sravasti Abbey in Newport, Washington in 2003. For short, daily Dharma teachings please visit: http://www.youtube.com/sravastiabbey. For many more teachings in audio and transcript formats, as well as articles and talks, visit: http://www.thubtenchodron.org. The weekly teachings that are uploaded here are also streamed live every Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. PST/ 9:00 p.m. EST on Justin.tv. Join us live at http://www.justin.tv/sravasti_abbey.
Ven. Chodron teaches on Verses 11 to 24 of Aryadeva's 400 Stanzas, which focus on grieving for the loss of those whom we are attached to. She highlights how practicing the Dharma will be of greater benefit to ourselves and our loved ones, and rounds off by reminding everyone of the value of building a place like Sravasti Abbey.
As part of the teachings on the first chapter of Aryadeva's 400 Stanzas, which focus on impermanence and death, Ven. Semkye explains the 9-point death meditation in the Lam Rim Chen Mo, and leads a meditation on imagining the time of death.
Venerable Chodron begins a new series of teachings on Aryadeva's 400 Stanzas. She reads Aryadeva's biography from "Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas," a commentary on the text by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, and gives an overview of the various chapters that will be covered in future weeks.
Venerable Chonyi ties up the last set of questions on the quiz on subsequent cognizers, correct assumers, doubt and wrong consciousnesses. She ends off the session with a powerful illustration of how to use syllogisms to deepen our understanding of the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.
Venerable Jigme goes over the quiz questions on inattentive perceivers, inferences and subsequent cognizers. The audience has a lively discussion about inferences that we adhere to in our daily lives and in our Dharma practice.
Venerable Tsultrim sits in the teacher's chair for the first time to go over the quiz on the Presentation of Mind and Awareness. She springs a number of surprise pop quiz questions, keeping everyone on their toes!
Venerable Tarpa reviews the first set of questions in a quiz on the Presentation of Mind and Awareness, which the community has fun answering. Quiz questions can be found on justin.tv/sravasti_abbey.
While visiting the Abbey, Ayya Tathaaloka gives teachings on how to meditate on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness.
In the final teaching on the presentation of mind and awareness, Venerable Chodron teaches on wrong consciousnesses. She summarizes how through hearing, thinking and meditating, we can progress from a wrong consciousness to develop a valid consciousness that will enable us to cut the root of suffering, which is self-grasping ignorance. Next week, we will have a quiz on the Lo Rig - quiz questions have been posted at www.justin.tv/sravasti_abbey
Venerable Chodron touches on intuition and what type of cognizer it is, and on the difference between mistaken and wrong conceptual consciousnesses. She goes on to teach about doubt, and gets us to investigate the doubts that impede our Dharma practice.
