Traditions and Lineages. Inner and Outer. A short course
Traditions and Lineages. Inner and Outer. A short course
Four sessions. Starting 17 February 2024
Religious/Spiritual traditions, ancient and contemporary, can appear like a huge tree with countless branches. There are common themes and unbridgeable differences making it hard for a sincere explorer of the religious/spiritual experience to make sense of it all.
Do join our four sessions. See flyer to register: For those in Western countries registration is €20 and living elsewhere is €10. If you wish, you can experience a taster free with the first session, then send in the registration afterwards.
Traditions and lineages form into sects, large and small, sometimes seeking to promote their beliefs on the public mind. Sectarian viewpoints form notions of superiority and inferiority, sometimes leading to conflict, if not more.
Yet, we can benefit from a sect within a single religious/spiritual tradition or lineage itself or diversify our interest in an experiential approach rather than theoretical.
The same issue of the common and the far apart applies in psychology, politics, science and more with a multiplicity of views. It is a bit like climbing a tree and disappearing into the branches. You end up comparing the shape of the branch and leaves with other branches and leaves. This is looking in the wrong direction.
The Buddha kept his focus on the trunk and root of the tree.
I will offer the first session on the benefits and limits of traditions and lineages.
The Buddha made the radical shift away from a lineage of spiritual teachers going back generations to a lineage of inner development and transformation.
He referred to four such lineages supporting each other contributing to contentment, development, letting go and mindful understanding.
Suchitra will offer teachings and practices on these four inner lineages in the second and third session.
I will teach the fourth session on the Buddha’s Charter on Religious Beliefs given to the Kalama people. This discourse points primary reasons for falling into the grip of a teaching in an unhealthy way.
We might describe the trunk and root of the tree as ethics/meditative concentration, wisdom and knowing a free and enlightened life.
If we keep our eyes wide open, we will not far into the grip of a narrow, dogmatic tradition/lineage, found in many sects. There is other extreme of the ego of broadmindedness that ‘all paths lead to Rome’ or “All is One.” These generalised claims have no substance.
Do join our four sessions on the outer and inner expressions of teachings.
A single sentence can transform a mindset.
We start on Saturday 17 February at 9 am CET.
Love
Christopher