Online Teaching
About this event
Recognizing our innate compassion can help us handle our relationships with ourselves, with others, and with various things more properly. As this understanding deepens, our hearts naturally open up, becoming more inclusive, more open, and wiser. We are beginning to see that the pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of suffering are the fundamental aspirations shared by all beings. Thus, no longer unconsciously creating causes of suffering, but learning to create causes of happiness, so that happiness is no longer short-lived and does not rely on external conditions, but becomes a stable, real and sustainable state of life.
“Joy of Living” level 2 teaches us how to open our hearts to others and no longer shut ourselves off when facing our own challenges and sufferings. To achieve this, first of all, we need to recognize that loving kindness and compassion are not sought externally but are always with us at all times. By continuously nourishing the innate qualities of compassion, until they naturally and fully develop. Meditation on the “Four Immeasurables”---loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity---is precisely a practical tool that helps us connect with these inner qualities, transforming compassion from an idea into a lifestyle that can be experienced and practiced.
Course Content
In this course, we will not only learn how to recognize the innate loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity, but also apply them in practice to our own compassion, compassion for others, and even compassion for those we dislike, gradually developing boundless compassion. At the same time, one will also learn Tonglen (taking and sending), as well as how to transform difficult emotions, so that compassion does not merely remain an idea but truly becomes a ability that can be practiced in daily life.
In the coming months, we will have practice group every week, where senior students will accompany the students to practice together, helping everyone integrate the understanding and experience from the courses into their daily lives. Through meditation on our innate compassion, we can face the ups and downs and challenges in life more calmly, and transform troubles and difficulties into favorable conditions for our practice. Even if life fluctuates like waves, we can still find joy and meaning in it.
This course is a brand-new teaching version (“Joy of Living” 2.0) personally recorded by Mingyur Rinpoche after his retreat. It is the most complete and clear teaching content of “Joy of Living” level 2.