Course/retreat Topics for Queenstown 2016 with Lama Mark Webber:
1. February 27 to 28, Saturday & Sunday evening: What is Buddhism,
what is Dharma, what is meditation? A classical and modern perspective. Two evenings.
2. March 1 to 3, Tuesday to Thursday: From the Four Noble Truths to Dzogchen: The Three Turnings of the Buddha’s Teaching
(Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana) and the Nine Vehicles of the Nyingma tradition, including detailed teachings on Empowerments and Sadhana: A theory, instruction and practice course. Six morning and evening sessions
3. (Optional if interest and if required) March 7 to 11, Monday to Friday mornings: Introducing the Drikung Yangzab Dzogchen: outer and inner teachings and preliminary meditations. Taught in mornings. Five 2-2.5 hr. classes. (for those who can’t come to Wangapeka.)
4. March 5 to 8, Saturday to Tuesday: Teachings and meditations of The Heart Sutra, followed by the Empowerment and the meditation of Prajnaparamita. 5 classes + on Tuesday evening the empowerment and reading/explanation of the practice.
5. March 12 to 13, Saturday and Sunday: Teachings in Invercargill.
Allowing the mind to be at ease. How to start taking the turmoil and bewilderment out of one’s life. Meditation, theory, instruction and practice from the tradition of Buddhism.
6. March 15 to 17. Tuesday to Thursday. Mini-retreat. All about Karma: meditations on causality using mindfulness as the tool: the root and begining practice of Insight/Vipassana. 3 day retreat. Mini- retreats #5 and #6 can be combined into a 10 day retreat.
7. March 19 to 24, Saturday to Thursday: Mini retreat. The Six Parami. Meditation, instructions and practice on the Parami, the six key vrealtive and absolute practices and attainments to carry us over to the Transcendant experience: step by step teachings and practice. 6 days, morning and evening sessions. Mini-retreats #5 and #6 can be combined into a 10 day retreat.
8. March 25 to 27, Saturday and Sunday. Mirror of the Mind. Maha Yoga/Dzogchen teachings and instructions on understanding and meditating on the nature and unity of all appearance/experience and emptiness (Sunyata). Understanding the reflective and unobstructive aspect of mind and awareness. Three classes. Sunday evening empowerment of White Tara, followed by a community meal (ganacakra/tsog).
9. March 28, Monday: Lama Mark leaves for Christchurch.
A teaching from Lama Mark Webber:
“What hinders unfoldment in meditation? It is a peculiar, incomplete view of the reason to meditate that hinders depth movement. No matter how hard you try to settle the mind with mind, mind will keep leaping around like a puppet on a string. Mind is already unperturbed, lucid and spacious, has been, is and will be. For even the roving thoughts, when seen, are in essence waves of clarity and manifestation – they are only made turbulent by one’s views.”
more information on Lama Mark Webber can be found here: http://www.dharmacentre.org.nz/lama-mark-webber/