Living in the Path Online
Realizing the Lamrim, Death-Impermanence: Cutting the Concept of Permanence

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 shows us that by living our lives with the wrong concept of permanence, the thought that we are going to live forever, we will experience "a whole package of problems" and never practice Dharma, the cause of every happiness. On the other hand, by getting rid of this "one mistake," we can make our lives meaningful by generating bodhichitta and engaging in the practice of tonglen, a meditation that involves visualizing taking others' suffering upon our self-cherishing and giving others all our happiness.

You can’t always believe the concept of permanence. You can’t live your life with the concept of permanence, “I am going to live forever.” Unless you have taken drugs, unless your mind is hallucinated, you can’t live your life with the concept of permanence. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

 Course Materials

The course materials consist of 31 pages of lightly edited transcripts accompanied by five short video excerpts of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings drawn from the Light of the Path Retreat 2009 held in North Carolina, USA. This module is introduced in a video featuring Ven. René Feusi.

Chapters:

1. A Whole Package of Problems
2. The One Mistake
3. The Answer is Bodhichitta    
4. Verses to Complete the Bodhichitta Motivation

Videos:

• Video 1:“A Whole Package of Problems”
• Video 2: “The One Mistake”
• Video 3: “By Now I’d Be a Fish”
• Video 4: “How Wonderful to Wake Up From Sleep”
• Video 5: “Tonglen: The Practice of Taking and Giving”

To help you deepen your personal understanding and experience of the teachings, they are supplemented with:

• 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