Tag: resources

Here you can download handouts for a six-week course introducing the various schools of Mahayana Buddhism. The handouts were provided by Achala from New Zealand. Please note that Achala says they all need further improvement! 

This is what Achala said about his intentions when designing this course:

I tried to construct a course such that it:

• covers what an average human being needs to effectively practice Buddhism.
   
• doesn’t not have a scholastic bent (so a few Pali/Sanskrit terms seemed reasonable but not so many as

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Seeing the implications of our behaviour for ourselves and others. 

A six-week course exploring Buddhist Ethics. Provided by Vajrapriya, Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK. This is the fourth module of Vajrapriya’s Level Two Buddhism Course in six modules.

Download this overview here

Overview

• Ethics as individual choice
• Love – the golden rule
• Generosity – respecting and contributing
• Contentment – weakening the neurotic drives
• Honesty – being true about ourselves
• Awareness – the working edge for any growth

Week 1: Ethics As Individual Choice

a) Attitudes when trying to communicate ethics

b) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

• Learning outcomes for module
• Exercise: Why practise ethics?
• Sources of ethical judgment
• The workings of karma
• Intention
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Download this overview of the course

The resources include:

• Notes for the course leader (including learning objectives, guide lines for input and exercises, background information, suggestions for home practice)
• Exercises, and handouts
• Overview of the course
• An overview of the whole of life’s dynamics in symbolic form.
• The wheel of life – knowing our realm
• The wheel of life – karma and rebirth
• The wheel of life – the chain of conditioning, “staying in the gap”
• The spiral path – to Insight and beyond
• The mandala of the five Buddhas – Akshobya and Amitabha
• The mandala of
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Here you can download notes for six talks/guided discussions introducing the Buddha, provided by Achala from Wellington, New Zealand.

1. Approaching the Buddha: His youth; the ‘Four Sights’ and the Going Forth; Enlightenment and the Nature of the Buddha; faith in the Buddha.
    
2. The Buddha’s Victories: Leaving the family/group; overcoming complacency and ambition; facing existential fear; being alone; Mara.
    
3. Stories from the Buddha’s Life: The first teaching; a case of dysentery; Kisagotami; Devadatta; meeting with Bharadvaja; mediating between the Koliyans and
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