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Four Views of Reality
September 21, 2023 @ 19:00 - 21:00
An Experiential Exploration of Tibetan Buddhism’s Four Schools of Emptiness.
Join us on four Thursdays in September and engage in experiential meditations led by Scott Snibbe, known from A Sceptics Path to Enlightenment.
WHEN: Thursdays, September 7, 14, 21 and 28, 7:00 – 9.00 pm CET
WHERE: Onsite & Online *
LEVEL: Some basic understanding of Buddhism is recommended, but everyone is welcome! You will receive a handout prior to the events.
Please Note: The teacher will be online, he is not at our Center.
REGISTRATION: Please REGISTER HERE
* Please scroll to the bottom of this page for Zoom Meeting Information
Disclaimer: By joining the Zoom room for the teachings you accept Lhagsam to record the teacher and Lhagsam host. We never record your face nor refer to any other than your first name.
Indo-Tibetan Buddhism posits four progressively subtler understandings of reality, in particular, exploring what “self” and “objects” may or may not be. Monks, nuns, and serious students of Buddhism study these different views, called “tenets” that were developed 1500-2000 years ago.
The topics can be tricky to understand and it’s hard to remember the schools’ specific Sanskrit names of Vaibhashika (Great Exposition), Sautantrika (Sutra), Cittamatra (Mind Only), and Madhyamaka (Middle Way). Simplified, these four views posit the “ultimate” nature of reality progressively from a view that believes in indivisible atoms and moments of consciousness to a reality where living beings and objects are wholly interdependent, impermanent, and infinitely divisible into sub-parts that are merely labeled out of convenience by our minds.
This course doesn’t attempt to explain these four schools with academic rigor, but rather offers an experiential tour of the schools through meditation, where we try and see reality through each of the school’s lenses. In meditation, we will look openly and critically at how reality feels according to each school. Sometimes we can jump to the most advanced “correct” view, without contemplation. But in this class, we’ll try to honestly consider whether our own view aligns with one or more of these schools, without imposing such bias.
One outcome of such graded meditation is that we may come to see the benefits and level of truth in each school (for example, seeing that the Vaibashika view may map closely to our current scientific understanding of reality). We may also discover that even though we know the “correct” answer for the highest school of reality, our minds currently find more comfort or truth in one of the other schools.
Like the invitation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nagarjuna, and other proponents of a critical approach to Buddhist teachings, this course is an adventure in trying to directly experience four schools of reality and see what we discover!
Is this course for me?
Yes! Regardless of whether you belong to a particular spiritual tradition or none, this course will give you tools to meditatively probe the various ways we experience and interpret our own existence and that of the phenomena around us. All that’s needed is an open and inquisitive mind!
What can I expect?
A series of profound meditations guided gently.
About the Teacher
Scott Snibbe is the founder and host of the meditation podcast ‘A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment’. Snibbe is a twenty-year student of Tibetan Buddhism whose teachers include Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, Choden Rinpoche, Ven. Rene Feusi, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Inspired by his teachers, he leads meditations that infuse the pure lineage of the great Buddhist masters with science, humor, and the realities of the modern world. Over the course of a career as a digital artist and entrepreneur, Snibbe has created bestselling art, music, and social apps, and collaborated with musicians and filmmakers including Björk, James Cameron, and Philip Glass. His interactive exhibits have been collected by both science and art museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and New York’s Museum of Modern Art
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Registration: is recommended, allowing us to send out possible handouts. Please Register Here
Cost: You would make us very happy by supporting us with a donation. Suggested donation is 0 – 40 CHF. No one will be turned away due to lack of funds. You can donate online (via Paypal, Twint or E-Banking).
Language: English
Level: Some basic understanding of Buddhism is recommended, but everyone is welcome! You will receive a handout prior to the events.
