Living in the Path Online
Realizing the Lamrim, Emptiness: Are You Sitting on Your I?

Overview

Living in the Path is an online program taught exclusively by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the spiritual director of the FPMT. Many of the modules are extracted from Rinpoche’s explanations of the topics of the lamrim – the teachings on the stages of the path to enlightenment according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa (Gelug). Other modules cover specific practices intended to help us purify our negative karma and create the merit necessary to actualize the lamrim topics.

Prerequisites
Living in the Path is ideal for anyone who wishes to deepen their personal practice and develop the realizations of the path to enlightenment by relying on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s heart advice and teachings. However, as Rinpoche’s teachings often assume familiarity with the topics of the lamrim, it is advisable to have done some prior study of the lamrim, such as by having completed some or all of the modules of Discovering Buddhism.

Course Contents
In this module of Living in the Path, Lama Zopa Rinpoche speaks extensively about how the I that appears to us and that we believe in is a TOTAL hallucination. To emphasize that not only can the real, or truly existent, I not be found anywhere on the aggregates, or even in the universe, even the merely labeled I cannot be found to exist anywhere, Rinpoche engages in a wonderful debate with the Kopan November Course teacher, managing to skillfully corner him with the consequence that if his merely labeled I is on his cushion, then his aggregates are sitting on his merely labeled I!

Course Materials
This module of Living in the Path consists of 72 pages of lightly edited transcripts accompanied by eight short video excerpts (3-24 minutes) drawn from teachings given at the annual Kopan November Course held Kopan Monastery, Nepal in November-December 2016. The subject of emptiness is introduced in a short video featuring Don Handrick.

Chapters
          Introduction
          1. A Real I Can’t be Found Anywhere
          2. The I is a Total Hallucination
          3. The I Appears True and Cheats You
          4. The Way the I Appears is Totally Wrong
          5. Believing in a Real I is a Big Mistake
          6. “No, No, No” are Bullets Hitting the Enemy

Video 1: You Can’t Find a Real I Anywhere

Video 2: You are Sitting on Your I

Video 3: The Main Thing is Believing in a Real I

Video 4: A Real I is a Total Hallucination

Video 5: The Mind Made Up a Real I

Video 6: Believing in a Real I is a Big Mistake

Video 7: “No, No, No” are Bullets Hitting the Enemy

Video 8: Fear Means You are Hitting the Enemy

• points for reflection at the beginning of each chapter
• guidelines for meditation at the end of each chapter
• mindfulness practices for keeping the teachings present throughout the day
• a service practice to benefit others

 A “Certificate of Achievement” is granted upon the successful completion of all the course requirements regarding study, meditation, and practice.

 Important information about your order of online materials: Following your order, you will receive an email with a link to a webpage to download a PDF document which will contain the enrollment key for the course and instructions on how to access the course on the FPMT Online Learning Center.