Entering the World of Tibetan Buddhism, Class by Dr. Roger Jackson

The class will introduce Tibetan Buddhism through four different lenses: history, cosmos, path, and mind. Each session will consist of an hour of lecture and discussion, followed by a half-hour of guided meditation.

To register for this class, please send an email to contact@northfieldmeditation.org. As all events and teachings at NBMC, the class is free of charge, but NBMC gladly accepts free-will donations. All who are interested are warmly invited to attend.

1. February 9:  Lecture (1 hour): History.   An introduction to the major features of Tibetan Buddhism through a survey of its historical development, stressing its relation to other traditions of Buddhism and its religious, philosophical, and institutional development within Tibet.

Meditation (1/2 hour): Tibetan techniques of concentration meditation

2. February 16:

Lecture (1 hour): Cosmos. A discussion of the Tibetan Buddhist world-view, including the structure and functions of the cycle of rebirths known as samsara and the vast and complex pantheon of buddhas and bodhisattvas that represents our potential for awakening.

Meditation (1/2 hour): Tibetan techniques of insight meditation

3. February 23:

Lecture (1 hour): Path. An overview of the graded series of meditations — rooted in both the sutras and the tantras — through which we evolve from self-centered, ordinary beings to fully awakened buddhas possessed of maximum understanding, compassion, and skill.

Meditation (1/2 hour): Tibetan techniques of compassion meditation

4. March 2:

Lecture (1 hour): Mind. An examination of Tibetan Buddhist perspectives on consciousness, which is seen as the source of both our afflictions and our eventual awakening, and whose nature must be clearly understood in life, death, and beyond.

Meditation (1/2 hour): Tibetan techniques of meditation on the nature of mind

Roger R. Jackson teaches the religions of South Asia and Tibet at Carleton College. His special interests include Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and ritual; Buddhist religious poetry; religion and society in Sri Lanka; and contemporary Buddhist thought. He has vastly published in this area and was editor and co-translator of The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems: A Tibetan Study of Asian Religious Thought (2009). He has been a practitioner of Buddhism since 1974, studying primarily with masters from the Geluk tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, but also with teachers of the other major Tibetan lineages, and of Theravada and Zen Buddhism, as well.