New York Special Events January to May 2015

Tantric meditations in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism are rich with ornate visualizations. These practices are multi-dimensional: meditators engage body, speech and mind in experiencing a blissful reality in which enlightened beings inhabit celestial mansions. These sacred visions are understood to exist, not as absolute concrete realities, but instead as arising dependently, like a mirage, a dream, or the moon’s reflection on a clear lake. In this three day series, Professor Robert Thurman and Dr. Tom Yarnall, two of America’s most renowned Buddhist scholars will shed light on the meaning of wisdom, and how emptiness and form co-exist in the Tibetan Buddhist worldview. Jewel Heart instructor Mark Magill will follow up on the third day by engaging the audience in discussion and guided meditation.

Registration Required for both Onsite and Webinar, and Closes Wednesday, May 6 at 3pm

Cost:

$80/Students & Seniors, $125/General Admission,
$200/Benefactors/Preferred Seating

A limited number of scholarships are available. To apply, contact Debbie Burr ([email protected]) or the New York chapter ([email protected]) prior to registration. You will be given a code to use during registration.

To Register, Click here.

For Questions about the Event, Contact [email protected].

Event Location:

Jewel Heart New York, 260 W. Broadway, NYC, 10013
[email protected], 212 966 2807

Graduate of Harvard University, PhD in Buddhology, Robert Thurman is currently the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. In 1972, He founded the American Institute of Buddhist Studies , with mission to research and translate the 4,000 works of the Tibetan Tengyur into English, volumes gradually being researched, translated and published with Columbia University Press as Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences. In 1987, he co-founded, with Richard Gere and Philip Glass, Tibet House US, dedicated to the preservation and renaissance of Tibetan civilization. In 2001, he co- founded with Nena Thurman the Menla Mountain Retreat Center in the Catskill Mountains to advance the life sciences and healing arts of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist medicine tradition. Thurman is the translator of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and author of many books, including Inner Revolution, The Central Philosophy of Tibet, The Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, Infinite Life, The Jewel Tree of Tibet, Circling the Sacred Mountain, and Why the Dalai Lama Matters.

Dr. Tom Yarnall is an Associate Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Religion at Columbia University in New York. As a teacher he specializes in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, teaching courses in Buddhist history, philosophy, ethics, and contemplative sciences, and in Tibetan and Sanskrit languages. As a researcher he works with the Columbia Center for Buddhist Studies (CCBS) and the Columbia-affiliated American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS), serving as the Executive Editor for the “Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences” series of translations of works from the Tibetan Tengyur (and associated literature), being co-published by AIBS, CCBS, and Tibet House US, and being distributed by Columbia University Press.Dr. Yarnall began his engagement with Buddhism almost 40 years ago (in the late 70s), studying intensively with Tibetan Lamas from all four orders (including H.H. the Dalai Lama, H.H. Sakya Dagchen Rinpoche, Ven. Dezhung Rinpoche, and many others), while earning a B.A. in Religion (Buddhist Studies) at Amherst College in 1983. He later enrolled in the graduate program in Religion (Buddhist Studies) at Columbia University, earning an M.A., an M.Phil., and a Ph.D. (with honors) in 2003.Dr. Yarnall’s own scholarly work has focused on Mādhyamika philosophy, Buddhist ethics, and especially on Indian and Tibetan Tantric materials of the Unexcelled Yoga class. His study and translation of the creation stage chapters of Tsong Khapa’s Great Treatise on the Stages of Mantra (sngags rim chen mo) was published in the “Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences” series in 2013. His forthcoming book, entitled The Emptiness that is Form: The Nonconceptual Embodiment of Buddhahood, contains a detailed analysis and study of the relationship between the view of emptiness and practice of deity yoga in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Tantra.

Mark Magill is a student of Gelek Rimpoche. He has led of a number courses and workshops at Jewel Heart. As a writer, he has worked with Rimpoche on his book Good Life, Good Death and served as editor for Gelek Rimpoche’s articles for Tricycle Magazine and other Buddhist publications. Mark’s books include Why Is the Buddha Smiling and Meditation and the Art of Beekeeping.

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Announcing Guest Speaker

GLENN MULLIN

Saturday, March 28, 7:30 – 9pm with
FEARLESS WISDOM IN A VIOLENT WORLD

Sunday, March 29, 2 – 6pm with
THE FIVE BUDDHA FAMILIES

Available via Webinar and at Jewel Heart International, 1129 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108

FEARLESS WISDOM IN A VIOLENT WORLD
Saturday, March 28, 7:30 – 9pm
Fear and violence have become a common default response to threats experienced in the world today, engendering minds of suspicion, anger, hatred and revenge. These perceptions do nothing to abate our fear, protect no one, and solve nothing. Yet they tend to rise at all levels of our lives, whether with family and friends, or with our broader communities, local or global.

How do we become fearless in the face of fear and act with confident wisdom to fully meet threat and create positive change? We invite you to join Glenn Mullin Saturday evening for this very pertinent and challenging topic.

THE FIVE BUDDHA FAMILIES
Sunday, March 29, 2 – 6pm

The potential for realization of the five Buddha families pervades all beings without exception, with each Buddha embodying a different aspect of enlightenment. When these aspects are not enlightened, they will manifest as afflicted states of mind. By purifying and abandoning the five disturbing emotions of obsession, anger/hatred, ignorance, pride and jealousy, they will emerge as the five wisdoms and function as the five Buddha families.

Join us for this introduction to this deeper nature of our innermost being with practice steps to effect transformation.

GLENN MULLIN is a Tibetologist, Buddhist writer, translator of classical Tibetan literature, and teacher of Tantric Buddhist meditation. He lived in the Indian Himalayas between 1972 and 1984, and studied philosophy, literature,meditation, yoga, and the enlightenment culture under thirty-five of the greatest living masters of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Glenn is the author of over 20 books on Tibetan Buddhism, founded and directed the Mystical Arts of Tibet, and has curated a number of important Tibetan art exhibitions.

For more about Glenn Mullin, visit http://www.glennmullin.com/new/profile.php where you can find the articles “War and Peace” and “The Buddhist Vision of Peace” as interesting material in advance of Saturday’s public talk.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR BOTH ON-SITE AND WEBINAR
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Cost – Sliding scale – $30 – $60

Questions? Contact [email protected] or call 734 994 3387 extensions 221, 223 or 224.

New York Programs January to May 2015

Sundays with Gelek Rimpoche

Live Webcasts

Sunday Mornings

Beginning March 1 and Continuing Throughout the Year

11:00 AM to Noon

We are pleased to announce that Gelek Rimpoche will continue to give Sunday morning talks from 11:00 AM to Noon. Speaking from Ann Arbor, New York and other locations, these talks are free of charge. For more information, please see the Jewel Heart website.

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We are pleased to present this five-session course exploring major topics and schools within classical Indian philosophy: existence, causality, perception, valid means of knowledge, consciousness, self and liberation. The course begins with a review of the cultural, religious and literary foundations of Indian philosophy, proceeds with a survey of the major schools of Brāhmanical and Buddhist philosophy, and concludes with an investigation competing theories regarding the principle branches of introspective knowledge. We will enrich our study of Buddhist philosophies through a greater appreciation of Indian intellectual history and the spectrum of philosophical views circulating during the eras of the Śākyamuni, Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga, Dharmakīrti and Candrakīrti.

The principal textbook for this course is Richard King’s Introduction to Indian Philosophy (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1999), available new and used through Amazon.

David Mellins is a translator and research scholar at the American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, where he is a translator and editor on an NEH funded projected investigating Buddhist Tantric sources in Sanskrit and Tibetan languages. He received his PhD in Sanskrit poetics at Columbia University in 2004 and has served as visiting assistant professor at Columbia and Yale Universities. From 2010 – 2012, he was co-director of the Buddhist Translators Workbench, an online lexographical resource for Buddhist translators and scholars. His research specializations include Sanskrit poetics, classical semantic philosophies of India and, most recently, Buddhist Tantric literature. He is the author of The Cool Rays of Reasoning and Aesthetics (Forthcoming – Pratibhaprakashan), and has lectured at conference and Universities in the United States, Europe and Asia.

REGISTRATION

Registration is required to attend in-person at Jewel Heart New York and via webinar. Click here to register. Registration closes on Wednesday, April 8 at 3pm

Sliding Scale: $60 – $100*

For questions, contact [email protected] or 734 994 3387 extension 2.

* Jewel Heart courses and workshops are open to all, regardless of ability to pay. If you are unable to afford a fee, please contact us about the possibility of a partial or full scholarship.

Chandrakirti image courtesy of rigpawiki.org

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