Tibetan Book of the Dead Class

Tibetan Book of the Dead:
The Great Liberation Through Hearing
Beginning Saturday Sept. 28, 2024 and subsequent Thursday evenings

Note: this class completed near the end of 2024. Since then, we have been studying Trungpa Rinpoche's Abhidharma seminar from 1971. We will be beginning a new Thursday night class in October 2025. We leave this course description here as an example of the type of things we do, but this class is completed and is not currently happening. If you are interested in this material, please write me directly. Videos and other materials could be made available. ngejungzoo@gmail.com

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: This class on the classic terma by Karma Lingpa is for all levels of students, including beginners. The sitting practice of meditation as taught by Trungpa Rinpoche forms the practical basis for all of Trungpa Rinpoche's teachings. Some excellent references can be found in the meditation section of this website. Direct instruction from a living person is also important for any practitioner. Students are encouraged to request instruction from an experienced instructor, and this is also available through this class and this group. New or old students, whether they are interested in this particular class or not, are welcome to contact me directly to set up an individual or group session for instruction (Robert Walker: ngejungzoo@gmail.com) related to the practice of meditation in this tradition.

A good deal of Trungpa Rinpoche's teachings can be accessed through this "Great Liberation" text and his teachings on it and related subjects. Literally titled "The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo", bardo is a Tibetan word which means "in-between". The text does include instructions for working with that period of time between one life and the next, however it also addresses embodied life as well, where grounding situations are constantly falling apart. We find ourselves between one job and another, one relationship and another, one breath and another. This text, on a deep level, provides mind-instructions for working with all life situations, especially situations of loss or transition.

Many of Trungpa Rinpoche's teachings are relevant to this topic. Subjects such as the skandhas, the six realms, the 5 elements and 5 buddha family wisdoms, working with emotions, emptiness and luminosity, basic instructions for working with mind on the cushion and off, will be included in this study and practice. And of course, "bardo" is an excellent approach to further understanding impermanence, a core Buddhist understanding. The teacher, Robert Walker, has attended and staffed 2 long and a number of short Maitri Space Awareness programs which rely on the teachings related to the buddha families, and has taught on this text and these teachings with students on several occasions.

The required text for the class will be the Trungpa-Fremantle translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Shambhala Publications. Highly recommended is the book "Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead", also by Francesca Fremantle. We will also access seminars on the Chogyam Trungpa Digital library website and related books by Trungpa Rinpoche such as "Transcending Madness" and "Ordinary Chaos," both of which can also be found in Trungpa Rinpoche's selected works volume 6. The Chogyam Trungpa Digital Website has published the 1971 Tibetan Book of The Dead seminar which we used as source material, and this is most highly recommended, probably above all other sources. If you have an interest in this class or questions, again, please write me at ngejungzoo@gmail.com