As Jamyang Buddhist Center gets ready for the new round of FPMT’s famous Discovering Buddhism program, Michael Lobsang Tenpa contemplates the origins and logic of the course.
Stumbling into Discovering Buddhism was one of the educational highlights of my life—even against the backdrop of having had a chance to study in Nepal for multiple years. Back in the day, serving as a new volunteer interpreter for an FPMT center, I was suddenly asked to help with the facilitation of review sessions for a long-term program I had known little about. The only thing I knew for sure was that it would be a big commitment, but that throughout the duration of it I would get to meet a number of exceptional individuals stepping in as the teachers for each module. That certainly happened, as I got to assist such wonderful teachers as Venerable Robina Courtin, Geshe Graham Woodhouse, and many others. The other thing that happened, though, was a thoroughly structured yet completely practical immersion in Buddhism, bringing a lot of benefit and information that I’m still relying on to this day. Equally, my Dharma friends who undertook the same journey and have since gone off to more elaborate study programs still refer to Discovering Buddhism as the foundation for their knowledge and practice. It is for this reason that I always tell people that going through this program is a rare gift—especially if the process of study is combined with a dedicated application of the practices that accompany each module.
Different ways to learn about the Dharma
There are many ways to study Buddhism in order to practice it, all serving different people and suitable in different contexts. Regardless of the specific methods we use, we would ideally be equipped with a working understanding of the Buddhist view—strong enough for us to turn this working understanding into lived experience and then, eventually, realization.
Of course, history knows examples of practitioners whose study regimen was extremely unelaborate. On one occasion, a practitioner by the name of Bahiya merely heard one verse of teaching from the Buddha and immediately became realized. His contemporary venerable Chudapanthaka, whose story is often retold in lamrim teachings, limited his study to something extremely short for a different reason: he initially did not have the intellectual capacity to memorize even a single four-line verse of teaching. Through Buddha’s pedagogical intervention, Chudapanthaka eventually succeeded in gaining realization through memorizing (and applying) the phrase “Cleaning dust, cleaning defilements.” Both examples show us that a deep immersion into a single verse of the Dharma can in itself be truly transformative.
Most of us, however, might have a bit of trouble if we were to work with merely one verse—mainly because we would habitually misinterpret most of the concepts embedded therein through projecting our own definitions. How is one to know the Buddhist definition of love, for example, if not through study? Is it the same love we feel for vegan burgers and for hiking? Same with attachment: is the emotional bond between a mother and a child something that is to be renounced, or does the Buddhist term refer to something entirely different?
One major way to absorb Buddhism is cultural osmosis: through simply being in a Dharma-infused environment, we absorb the ethos and foundational logic of the Dharma, strengthening our qualities of faith, compassion, love, and wisdom. A traditional analogy compares this process to the interaction between regular wood and sandalwood, the latter infusing the former with a beautiful aroma. Sadly, this way of studying is not easily available to many of us, sometimes because we come from a non-Buddhist background and sometimes because of the historical events that delivered strong blows to our ancestral Dharmic traditions. When that is the case, we are left with the option to pursue knowledge through focused, deliberate study: a gradual exploration of Dharmic wisdom that we then seek to apply through reflection and meditation.
How is such focused study done? The main form that has been preserved and used in the Indo-Tibetan tradition is that of textual study. Taking a particular composition as the basis for exploration, the participants of a specific course slowly go through the text, unpacking the meaning of each line, and, in some cases, of each individual word. In a monastic setting, this is usually done under the guidance of a well-educated teacher who delivers the main commentary, and an assistant teacher who runs review classes. Depending on the context, this process can be further deepened through debate or personal sessions of analytical meditation. Imagine studying Śāntideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva or Nāgārjuna’s Root of the Middle Way: carefully reading the root text (often side-by-side with a reliable commentary), receiving elaborate explanations for each line, and then finally integrating the meaning into one’s world view so that it can enrich one’s meditation and change one’s behaviour.
This form of study, though certainly immensely powerful, has one major drawback when it comes to complete beginners: none of the major texts would initially be easy to understand simply because we lack the foundational vocabulary, or, rather, because we misinterpret that vocabulary, projecting our Judeo-Christian or materialistic ideas onto the words that seem familiar. In some cases, we simply don’t know the meaning of a specific term or lack the overall understanding of the Buddhist view on reality. Because of this, we as beginners can be benefitted by another approach: by thematic study, which lies at the root of the Discovering Buddhism program.
Thematic study takes the students through a number of topics, bringing in scriptural excerpts periodically but not necessarily unpacking an entire classical text. When using this principle we can look at a number of topics relevant to our current personal situation, such as when someone is introducing us to the foundational principles of Buddhist emotional management. Equally, we can explore Buddhist ideas related to the natural world, or to social justice, or to the inner workings of the mind. In essence, any specific topic (or any combination of topics) can be presented, contemplated, and unpacked through a combination of Buddhist logic and scriptural references, providing us with a general understanding that can then be brought into our practice and also used to deepen our textual study.
Discovering Buddhism
As a program built on the thematic study approach, Discovering Buddhism was initially envisioned by Lama Zopa Rinpoche as an offering to the Buddhist community of Mongolia. The program was meant to help after the decades of Buddhism’s decimation at the hands of the Soviet-sponsored materialistic regime, offering foundational knowledge to the lay practitioners who wanted to reinvigorate their practice and make it more structured. The original 14-module curriculum was carefully devised in order to help those who want to understand Buddhism better, primarily through a combination of thematic study and daily practice. In Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s inimitable style, the program provides its participants with ample opportunities for study, meditation, and service—and quite importantly, also with opportunities for purification and merit accumulation meant to make one’s mind more receptive to the transformative message of the Dharma.
The overall logic of the program roughly follows the general outline of lamrim (“stages of the path”) teachings, with some important additions by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
The journey starts with an introduction to the basics of Buddhist psychology in module 1; participants explore the Buddhist understanding of the mind and are introduced to an accessible and highly practical version of lorig (“mind and cognizers”) teachings—teachings on the functioning of our mind. On this basis, they then explore the basics of Buddhist meditation in module 2, learning, in particular, to work with concentration meditation and analytical meditation as the tools that are quintessentially important for mastering the material of each subsequent module.
Module 3 presents one with a general overview of the lamrim path, helping one see that one’s Buddhist training does not need to be disorganized or random. The following modules go more deeply into the constituent parts of the graduated path. Participants explore the basic principles of a healthy relationship with spiritual mentors in module 4; contemplate the topics of death and rebirth (which includes a thorough exploration of the stages of dying) in module 5; contemplate the law of karma and look into the four powers of karmic purification in module 6; and explore the practice of taking refuge in module 7. In module 8, they use all the ideas thus explored to build a stable daily practice, complete with the elements of purification, accumulation, and lamrim meditation.
Continuing with the exploration of major lamrim headings, one then considers the topic of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa (finally learning that the latter is not merely a rock band!) in module 9, and then delves into the powerful Mahāyāna teachings on kind-heartedness in modules 10 (bodhicitta) and 11 (special techniques for transforming problems into the path). The next two modules introduce one to the basics of the Buddhist view of emptiness and to the practice of tantra; both, essentially, show how certain advanced practices can help us weaken the tendency to reify our habitual perception of reality.
The last module, “Special Integration Experiences”, comes straight from the heart of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s approach to accumulation and purification—two technical processes that are, in the view of Lama Tsongkhapa, vitally important for the success of our spiritual endeavors. In this module, participants are introduced to three specific purification methods: confession to the 35 buddhas (which comes from the Three Heaps Sūtra), the purifying meditation-recitation of Vajrasattva, and, finally, the fasting method (Tib. Nyungne) of Avalokiteśvara which comes from the lineage of the great Indian adept Bhikṣuṇī Lakshmi. These three methods, meant to be applied extensively, help us develop further confidence in our practice while also strengthening a number of important Dharmic qualities, including joyful effort and humility.
This sequence of steps, organized along the lines of Tsongkhapa’s presentation of the path, is strongly practice-oriented and is not meant for mere accumulation of intellectual knowledge—and yet that knowledge does get accumulated. This increase in knowledge, of course, just makes it easier to go through the subsequent stages of reflection and meditation, and these two steps are also built into the program itself. Through this, the quintessential insights of the graduated path slowly become a part of our lived experience.
Is it for me?
When contemplating whether to join a course like Discovering Buddhism, one might face a number of reservations. One is feeling uncertain whether one is ready to commit to such an elaborate program. Here it’s important to remember that Discovering Buddhism only invites us to take one step at a time, offering information and practices in a very measured, gradual manner and providing us with a supportive environment (and a community) for digesting each new portion.
The other objection can come from us feeling like we already know a lot—actually, too much to explore a foundational course of this nature. This is contradicted by precedents amply offered by the Indo-Tibetan tradition itself. The content of Discovering Buddhism is formed by the lamrim (stages of the path) teachings, and these can be revisited any number of times, with each repetition bringing us greater depth of understanding, and, if all the practices are done correctly, greater amount of experience.
When His Holiness the Dalai Lama offers teachings on lamrim, they are attended by numerous Buddhist scholars and practitioners, many of whom have already taught a lot of lamrim themselves. One never truly “outgrows” these foundational teachings, at least not until one is fully realized. Until highest realization is achieved, strengthening our foundation—through study, through reflection, and through meditation—can only bring benefit, to ourselves and to all those affected by our thinking and our behavior.
Click here to find out more about the upcoming Discovering Buddhism course
