The Prajnopaya Instiute of Buddhist Studies

Father Thomas Keating OCSO: Father Keating is founder of the Centering Prayer Movement and Contemplative Outreach and former chair of the Monastic Inter-religious Dialogue. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Christian contemplative practice and one of the world's most revered teachers of the contemplative and mystical dimensions of Christianity. At the age of eighty-one, he continues to be a prominent voice in the Christian Centering Prayer movement through the organization he founded, Contemplative Outreach is an international network committed to renewing the contemplative dimension of the Gospel in daily life. Father Keating was Superior of St. Benedict's Monastery of Snowmass, Colorado, and the Abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey of Spencer, Massachusetts.

His books include, Open Mind, Open Heart, The Mystery of Christ, Invitation to Love, Intimacy with God, The Human Condition, The Better Part, and the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit

Part of the Mandala Project 2006: Aesthetics, Contemplation & Education

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The Ceaseless Society: A Talk by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Tuesday, April 25 2006 at 5:30PM Simmons Hall (MIT)

Click below to access the web-cast.
[Broadband - 220k | Dial-up - 56k ]
Provided by The Technology & Culture Forum at MIT.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is founder and former executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society and Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founder and former director of the Stress Reduction Clinic, where mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) originated. He is the author of Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness; Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life; co-author, with his wife Myla, of Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting; and author of Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT in 1971 in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, Salvador Luria. His research since 1979 has focused on mind/body interactions for healing and on the clinical applications and cost-effectiveness of mindfulness meditation training for people with chronic pain and stress-related disorders, including a work-site study of the effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on the brain and how it processes emotions, particularly under stress, and on the immune system (in collaboration with Dr. Richard Davidson). He has trained groups of judges, business leaders, lawyers, Catholic priests, and Olympic athletes (the 1984 Olympic Men's Rowing Team) in mindfulness, as well as directed multi-year programs in the inner city and in the Massachusetts state prison system.

Part of the Mandala Project 2006: Aesthetics, Contemplation & Education

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Introduction to Mind Training
[A Retreat on the Lojong Practice]

With Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi
Saturday, March 18, 2006

10:30AM - 4:30PM

Venue: Twenty Chimneys, Student Center, MIT, Cambridge MA

The practice of mind training is central to the Buddhist spiritual cultivation. This retreat is designed for beginner and intermediate students of Buddhadharma to understand the grounds of such practice(s). Students will learn about this practice as indicated in the writing of the great Indian Pandita Dipankara Atisha and upholders of this tradition in Tibet such as Geshe Chekawa, who wrote the Seven Point Mind Training ( Blo-sbyong don-bdun-ma ).

Suggested Text: Eight Verses for Training of the Mind Training by Langri Tangpa

Cost: $60 (Scholarship available for high school and college students; Free for MIT Students)

Cancellation Fee: 50% after March 5. Cancellation fees are donated to our Scholarship Fund.

Dharma is priceless. The donation that you give towards these teachings goes to support our various social projects. Money should never be an issue for NOT studying the Dharma. If you are unable to pay the complete amount please donate a part of the fee. You still need to register for the teachings.

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An Evening with Krishna Das
Friday, January 13, 8 PM

MIT's Kresge Auditorium: Concert/kirtan. Tickets $20 advance; $25 at the door.

Saturday, January 14, 1-4 PM MIT Chapel, Workshop with Krishna Das.

January 14 Workshop with Krishna Das @ MIT is now sold out.

Krishna Das's workshops are like mini-retreats. Along with chanting, Krishna Das shares stories about his experiences on the Path. Workshops with Krishna Das usually include: Chanting (call and response) with musical accompaniment, stories about his Guru, readings from spiritual traditions, teachings, and discussions about life and the spiritual Path. This forum provides the opportunity for Q&A in an intimate setting. Tickets: $40 advance; $45 at the door.

Krishna Das first traveled to India in 1970 where he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji). Through Maharaj-ji, he was introduced to the devotional singing practice of kirtan, an ancient method of heart purification. He has released several CD's and now leads chanting workshops around the world, helping us to turn within and find our own inner understanding. Krishna Das has also been studying Buddhist meditation for more than 30 years. Sharing his heart through music and chanting is the basis of Krishna Das's own spiritual work; his way of serving the Divine within himself and others.

Sponsored by: MIT Prajnopaya and The Prajnopaya Foundation

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Between Samsara and Nirvana
(A Retreat based on the Bardö Teachings)

With Ven. Tenzin LS Priyadarshi

Saturday, December 10, 2005
10:30am - 4:30pm

Venue: Twenty Chimneys, Student Center, MIT, Cambridge MA

Attitude(s) towards Life & Death. Intermediate Stages in Buddhism. Meditation on Peaceful Death and Dying.

Bardo (Tibetan. bar'do) refers to the "intermediate stage" in the Buddhist view of life and death. While Bardo is most commonly understood to mean the time between an individual's death and next life, the term can also refer to other types of interim stages or transitions. Indo-Tibetan Buddhist traditions speak of Bardo as comprised of either four or six stages. This retreat will examine each of these and its respective implication for a serene death and rebirth. Participants will be introduced to a special meditation practice that will deepen the understanding of the Bardo stages. The great Tibetan master Milarepa, a proponent of these meditation practices, said that the function of a student of Buddhadharma is to live like a yogi and to die like a yogi.

Suggested Donation: $60. Please Pre-pay. Checks made to “Prajnopaya”.
(Limited scholarships available for students)

Dharma is priceless. The donation that you give towards these teachings goes to support our various social projects. Money should never be an issue for NOT studying the Dharma. If you are unable to pay the complete amount please donate a part of the fee. You still need to register for the teachings.

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Sadhana of 1000 Arm Avalokiteshvara
(For initiates only)

Led by The Venerable Tenzin LS Priyadarshi

October 29, 2005 at 10am - 3pm

Venue: Information will be given upon registration

Registration closed.

     Dharma is priceless. The donation that you give towards these teachings goes to support our various social projects. Money should never be an issue for NOT studying the Dharma. If you are unable to pay the complete amount please donate a part of the fee. You still need to register for the teachings.

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Introduction to Chenrezig
A Talk by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche

Friday, April 22, 2005 at 7:00 - 8:30pm
Room 4-237, MIT

     Chenrezig represents the immeasurable loving and compassionate potential of the mind. Whenever we are compassionate, we experience a taste of our own natural connection with Chenrezig, our basic nature, which is unconditional compassion and wisdom. In this lecture, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche will introduce us to the Buddhist concepts of compassion and Chenrezig. Reception to follow, 8:30-9:00pm.

     Venerable Barway Dorje Chaktrul (Bardor Tulku) Rinpoche is a founder of KTD, seat of the Gyalwa Karmapa in the USA. He was born in Kham, East Tibet, in the spring of 1950 and was recognized by HH the 16th Karmapa as the Third Barway Dorje Tulku. He received formal training at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim under his tutelage. Bardor Tulku Rinpoche is tireless in his attention to his students, to the Teachings and to the flourishing of His Holiness' activity, in Woodstock and around the world.

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The Vajrasattva Sand Mandala
For Insight, Awareness and Altruism

Please click here for more information and Live Web Cast of the Sand Mandala

Simmons Hall, MIT
229 Vassar St., Cambridge, MA

April 2-9, 2005

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Awakening Bliss, Generating Compassion
A Talk by Robert Thurman
April 8, 2005

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FREEDOM FROM THE FOUR ATTACHMENTS
(A Retreat Based on Mind Training [Lojong] Teachings)

Led by Lama Migmar Tseten

Saturday, March 19, 2005 10:30 am- 4:30 pm

MIT Chapel
(Where is this place?)

Registration Cost: $80

(Limited scholarships are available! Free for High School and College Students!)

All proceeds to benefit the humanitarian activities of The Prajnopaya Foundation

     This is perhaps the most concise yet central teaching in the Buddhist world to effectively engage in the exercise of mind training.

     The founding patriarch of the Sakya tradition, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, at the age of twelve, through a direct realization of Bodhisattva Manjushri, received the teaching known as "The Freedom from the Four Attachments." The teaching itself was only one verse of four lines, but its meaning included the entire path leading to Buddhahood.

     Unfolding the essential points for practice of each stage of mind training according to the Mahayana Buddhist teachings, this text is a detailed and lucid discussion of the genuine view of the true nature of mind. You will be introduced to the unity of clarity and emptiness, the recognition of primordial wisdom, known as Mahamudra, the Great Perfection, and, in the Sakya tradition, as the Inseparability of Samsara and Nirvana.

     Acharya Lama Migmar Tseten was born in Tibet in 1956. In 1980 he received the Acharya degree from the Tibetan Institute at Varanasi where he achieved the position of first among his class of students from the four lineages every year, for nine years. In 1981, H.H. Sakya Trizin appointed Lama Migmar the head of the Sakya Main Monastery at Puruwala, India and the Sakya Center at Rajpur, India. In 1990, Lama Migmar was appointed the head of the Sakya Retreat Center in Barre, MA. He also established the Sakya Institute of Buddhist Studies in Cambridge, MA and the Manjushri Temple in Shrewsbury, MA. He is also a Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University.

     Dharma is priceless. The donation that you give towards these teachings goes to support our various social projects. Money should never be an issue for NOT studying the Dharma. If you are unable to pay the complete amount please donate a part of the fee. You still need to register for the teachings.

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Tears of Joy:
Laughing Buddha, Weeping Jesus
(A Dialogue on Spiritual Joy and Contentment)

The Reverend Gareth C. Evans and
The Venerable Tenzin LS Priyadarshi

Friday, March 18 and Wednesday, May 18, 2005

7:30-9PM at the First Parish in Concord

The friendship between Gareth and Priyadarshi, deemed by their esteemed peers at Harvard as "Padre and Da Monk," was sparked by a mutual curiosity to make sense of Buddhism and Christianity in light of the wisdom of the other. In the past few years they have engaged in numerous formal (and countless informal) conversations on religion and religious life and what it means for us today. The significance of joy and sadness, anxiety and inner-peace requires examination as they constantly inform various dimensions of our religious experience. The purpose of this series of dialogues is to explore emotions, which otherwise may seem quite ordinary, but have profound implications for our on-going spiritual formation.

Co-Sponsored by the Wright Tavern Center for Spiritual Renewal

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Bodhicarya: Contemplation and Compassionate Action

Led by The Venerable Tenzin LS Priyadarshi

February 26, 2005, 10:30 am- 4:30 pm

MIT Chapel
(Where is this place?)

Registration Cost: $80

(Scholarships available for High School and College Students; Free for MIT Students)

All proceeds to benefit the humanitarian activities of The Prajnopaya Foundation

The “Bodhisattva Ideal” is a popular but widely misunderstood theme in Buddhism. A series of retreats based on the Bodhisattva Vow, the Bodhisattva Path and the Bodhisattva Stages will perhaps help us decipher the mysteries surrounding these noble beings and our aspirations to become like them. We will actively engage with works of some great acaryas (masters) such as Asanga, Shantideva, Candragomin, Kamalashila, Atisha, Sakya Pandita and Tsong-khapa. These were individuals who devoted much of their lives to understanding the role of the Bodhisattva in this world. Does the “Bodhisattva Ideal” allude to perfection? Are Bodhisattvas a different species?

Perhaps you will be disappointed to learn that Bodhisattvas are not limited to Buddhism but that they can be found in other religious and non-religious traditions of the world. Regardless of whether one has a religious background or not—whether one believes in things mysterious or not, everyone can gain insight into the living of life of a Bodhisattva through this process of contemplation.

84,000 gates to the Dharma;
Perceived through the 5 senses—

Do I see suffering? Do I hear the cry?
Do I smell discrimination and injustice?
Do I taste the bitterness of hatred?
Do I feel the heat of anger and
the chill of insensitivity?

When was the last time I heard a calling?
Nay! When was the last time I called to myself?

Still mind—vibrant compassion—pervasive altruism

Reflect!

What is the world I wish to create?

Dharma is priceless. The donation that you give towards these teachings goes to support our various social projects. Money should never be an issue for NOT studying the Dharma. If you are unable to pay the complete amount please donate a part of the fee. You still need to register for the teachings.

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Non-violence in Education
(The Tibetan School Project)

www.tibet-school.org

Tuesday, February 1, 2005 7:00 pm in Room 2-105

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139

Soenam Jamyangling is Chairman and Founder of the Tibetan School Project and the Swedish Tibetan Society for School & Culture. Hear his dynamic approach to building schools on the roof of the world.

The Tibetan School Project is a nonprofit venture of Tibetan exiles and Westernersto build 108 schools inside Tibet.

This event is Co-Sponsored by:
MIT-Prajnopaya, The Buddhist Community at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US Tibet Society for School & Culture

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Listening to the Sound of Silence
(A Day of Silent Meditation)

Led by The Venerable Tenzin LS Priyadarshi

Saturday, January 29, 2005 10:30 am - 4:30 pm

MIT Chapel
(Where is this place?)

Suggested Donation: $50 (non-MIT); Free for MIT Students
(Scholarships available for other High School and College Students)
(Parking information to follow after you register!)

What is the nature of the mind when it is not actively engaged in thinking? During this retreat we will alternately practice sitting meditation, walking meditation, and chanting as means to get a glimpse into serenity. Your lab, the object of your experimentation, and the subject of your focus is none other than your own mind - are you ready to work on it? It is a day when you can teach your mind to "hibernate" - to actualize the power of silence and the dynamism of stillness!

Dharma is priceless. The donation that you give towards these teachings goes to support our various social projects. Money should never be an issue for NOT studying the Dharma. If you are unable to pay the complete amount please donate a part of the fee. You still need to register for the teachings.

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(Re)generating the Altruistic Mind
(A Retreat Based on the Avalokitseshvara/ Cenrezig Sadhana)

Led by The Venerable(s) Tenzin LS Priyadarshi and Lama Sonam

Saturday, December 11, 2004 10:00 am - 4:30 pm

MIT Chapel
(Where is this place?)

Suggested Donation: $80
(Scholarships available for High School and College Students)

     This holiday season give yourself the wonderful gift of Bodhicitta (Enlightened Altruistic Mind) and deepen your understanding of the gift you already have, a precious human life. Words cannot adequately describe the wonderful qualities of these two - we invite you to come get a taste of them. This one day retreat will give you the opportunity to reflect on the year that just passed, and to contemplate on the time that is coming - how to make the best use of this time, this body, and this life. The great teacher Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche once exclaimed, "I ask myself why we do not practice, just for those few moments of time in which death has lent us our body."

     This retreat will focus on the practice associated with the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara, and will shed light on how to develop the qualities that this figure evinces. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has often said that there are no absolutes in Buddhism - but if there were one, it would be "compassion." During this retreat we will open our hearts and deepen our minds to the profundity of this refined sense of Compassion, as it is understood in the Buddhist tradition.

The participants of this retreat will receive an oral transmission of the Six Syllable Mantra of Avalokiteshvara.

     The Venerable Lama Konchok Sonam began his Buddhist training at Katsel Monastery in Tibet. He studied with HE Chuntzang Rinpoche and HE Thristsab Rinpoche and served as a disciplinarian at Jangchhub Ling, Seat of the Drikung Kagyu School in India. He is currently the resident teacher of the Drikung Kagyu Sangha in Boston. For a full bio please visit http://drikungboston.org/lamasonam.shtml

     The Venerable Tenzin LS Priyadarshi began his training in Rajgir near the ancient Nalanda Monastic University in India. He studied under the guidance of HH the Dalai Lama who is also his preceptor and with other eminent teachers such as HH Sakya Trizin and HE Kushok Bakula. He is currently a Visiting scholar and Buddhist Chaplain at MIT and teaches at the Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, the North American Seat of HH the Dalai Lama.

     Dharma is priceless. The donation that you give towards these teachings goes to support our various social projects. Money should never be an issue for NOT studying the Dharma. If you are unable to pay the complete amount please donate a part of the fee. You still need to register for the teachings.