Rigpa US is pleased to offer an exciting series of online courses exploring “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” by Sogyal Rinpoche, the groundbreaking book that has helped millions of people find wellbeing in their lives and the possibility of ultimate freedom from suffering through their experience of the Buddhist tradition of wisdom and compassion.
You are warmly invited to join us this fall as we embark on a series of short courses, “The Heart of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.” The series of courses provides an overview of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings as presented in this acclaimed book.
In each of the courses, we will focus on one or two chapters of the book, immersing ourselves in their profound wisdom and practical advice. Participants will be able to take any one or all of the 4 or 5 week courses that will be offered throughout the year. This is an opportunity for deep study, contemplation, and meditation that will serve to guide you on a unique journey of personal transformation.
We will examine:
How to meditate
How an acceptance of impermanence can help us understand death and change our attitude towards life
How meditation can transform our perception, increase our confidence and fully connect us to the world around us
That mind is much more than just thoughts and emotions
How understanding the interdependency of all things and the principle of karma (that every action has an effect) gives us a logical basis for ethics and personal responsibility
How compassion can be nurtured in our hearts in a way that profoundly changes our own minds and our relationships.
In each session we will provide space to connect with the profound teachings in the book through:
Brief Video teachings from Tibetan and Western Buddhist masters
Meditation
Time for contemplation
Ample space for Group discussions and Q&A, offering you the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment.
Audience
This course series, and each short course, is suitable for everyone. Each class is 1:45 minutes in length. Classes are offered via Zoom.
“In this book, I endeavored to share something of the wisdom of the tradition I grew up in. I sought to show the practical nature of its ancient teachings and how they can help us at every stage of living and dying. Many people, over the years, had urged me to write this book. They said that it would help relieve some of the intense sufferings that so many of us go through in the modern world.”
COURSE SERIES
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Starts Wednesday Nov 27, 2024 (4 weeks only)
4pm PT / 7 pm ET
In this module we explore the power of our mind as the universal ordering principle; it is the creator of suffering and the creator of happiness. We investigate two aspects of the mind: the appearance of the mind - our thoughts, emotions, all the stories, the ordinary mind; and the essence of mind – which is clear, cognizant and has unconfined capacity. And we look at how to make our meditation practice truly meaningful.
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Jan 2025 Dates TBD
In this course we learn a range of meditation techniques to enable us to access a rich variety of methods to transform our moods and emotions. This shows us how the whole purpose of meditation is to transcend our ordinary mind, to discover our fundamental nature, which we have lost touch with. The highest goal of meditation is to awaken in us the sky-like nature of mind and introduce to us who we really are: our unchanging pure awareness.
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2025 Dates TBD
This course explores the Buddhist reasoning for the acceptance of rebirth and reincarnation. We will use the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths as a framework to help us take stock of our lives, inspire a shift in the way we see ourselves and the way we relate to the world around us. Lastly, the course investigates karma, which is often misunderstood as fate or predestination. Karma, however, if understood well, presents us with an opportunity to be free from our suffering.
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2025 Dates TBD
The first declaration that the Buddha made at the time of his enlightenment was: “Profound peace, free of complexity, natural simplicity, uncompounded luminosity.” This course examines what is enlightenment and explores the practical training of the Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Path in terms of View, Meditation, and Action. To see directly the absolute state, the Ground of our being, is the View; the way of stabilizing that View and making it an unbroken experience is Meditation; and integrating the View into our entire reality, and life, is what is meant by Action.
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2025 Dates TBD
This course provides an introduction to the Tibetan Buddhist compassion practices with a particular focus on loving kindness practice. Meditating on loving kindness can help us restore our love and confidence, and heal unresolved emotional wounds. It also puts us back in touch with the fundamental goodness of our core being, and once that has happened, we are able to love ourselves and others.
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2025 Dates TBD
This course explores the Buddhist approach to practicing compassion and how to apply it in all situations. The first step to compassion is to realize that other people are just like you. They too wish to be happy and free from suffering. Then, through the practice of Tonglen (giving and receiving), we begin to mentally take on the suffering of others with compassion, and give your happiness and well-being with love. So that ultimately our every action can be an act of compassion.
Class Size: Each module will be limited to 30 students.
Materials: Students will need to have a copy of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, available online in print and Kindle formats. An audio book version is also available, but students should have a copy of the text.
The course sessions are offered online, via Zoom. Course materials, suggested home study and discussions will be shared in an online forum.
Course materials will be made available a week before the start date.
Teaching Team
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Betty Lynn-Moulton
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Debbie Kinton
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Hanne Riegg-Luedge
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Jeff Middleton
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Linda Forrester
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Pat Best
THE TEACHING TEAM
Pat Best has been instructing Rigpa public courses since 2011. She originally met Sogyal Rinpoche, first through his book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying in 1992, and later found that there was a local group of students and began classes in 1997. She finally met him in person when he was with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at American University in 1998. During the years in between, she found the teachings a way to understand her mind and therefore, a new way of seeing the world in a more expansive and open way. With many years of study, practice, and the motivation to help others, she continues to offer time to guide students with their own study and practice. Recently, she has accepted to be an entrusted Rigpa teacher in 2022. She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and her daughter, and three grandchildren nearby.
Linda Forrester first read and fell in love with the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying in 2001. She knew that she needed to meet the author! She sought out the New York City Rigpa center and started going to weekly meditation sessions. In May 2001, she attended her first retreat with Sogyal Rinpoche. She felt she’d found her Home, and she became Rinpoche’s student. In the chaos that followed in September of that year, she also felt his support and the solidarity of the local sangha. Over the years, Linda attended many retreats, in the U.S., France, and Ireland. She has been a Rigpa instructor since 2005. She completed the Intensive Home Retreat in 2012 and a 5-month retreat in 2022. Retired now, Linda Forrester taught ESL at the City University of New York for over 25 years. Her work with immigrant and international students was constantly inspired by Sogyal Rinpoche’s teachings, and she feels deep gratitude to him.
Debbie Kinton was first introduced to Tibetan Buddhism in 1979 in Galway, Ireland. She has studied and practiced under the guidance of highly regarded masters from the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Her connection to the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying deepened during retreats where chapters of the book were read aloud. Studying the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying has been a cornerstone of her spiritual path. She completed a three-year retreat in Lerab Ling in southern France in 2006-2009.
Jeff Middelton has been a student of Sogyal Rinpoche and a member of Rigpa for over twenty years, having initially connected through the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying while traveling in India, only to find that a Rigpa center was in his neighborhood back home in Seattle. He has found that the brilliant clarity in the teachings and the practice have provided an accessible refuge so essential in today’s modern world. He completed the 7 year home retreat program in 2012 and has instructed Rigpa courses since 2010. He particularly enjoys interacting with students who are drawn to the Buddhist path. He was entrusted as a teacher in 2022.
Betty Lynn Moulton is a retired psychologist. She has been instructing Rigpa courses for 15 years. She originally met Sogyal Rinpoche over 25 years ago and was immediately moved by the clarity and relatability of his teachings. Rinpoche’s teachings were exactly what she had been seeking in her quest to understand the mind. Betty Lynn has been privileged to help guide many students over the years in their study of the teachings. She particularly enjoys interacting with students who are just beginning to study the Buddhist path. She was entrusted as a Rigpa teacher in 2022. She lives on Maui with her husband, three horses, and three cats.
Hanne Riegg-Luedge met Sogyal Rinpoche in 1985 at a retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains. She has been following Rinpoche’s teachings ever since and has been an instructor since the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying was published in 1992. After living in Santa Cruz for over 30 years, she moved to Southern Oregon in 2020 with her husband to live close to her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. Hanne is a retired psychologist.