Foundations of Buddhism: The Truth of the Origin of Suffering (hybrid)
This five-week course is an exploration of the Buddhist teachings on the origins of dissatisfaction and suffering. It also offers an introduction and exploration of Mindfulness of Feeling - one of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. There are no prerequisites for this course, and all are very welcome, regardless of their background! Join in person or via Zoom.
The main talks will be pre-recorded by the senior teachers. Each class will also include guided meditations, as well as group discussion and contemplative exercises.
When we recognize the truth of suffering and the confusion that is pervasive in our life, we naturally have questions. How does this state of suffering arise? Where does confusion come from? If we’re inspired by these questions, our innate intelligence begins to explore the subtle layers of our experience, going deeper and deeper until we come to the heart of our being...
Each class will explore the Buddhist teachings on the “Five Skandhas” - the basic factors of experience from which we build a sense of self (i.e. form, feeling, perception, concepts, and consciousness). We will touch these layers of experience one by one, and see how we fabricate our own world from our projections.
Class 1: Introduction to the Second Noble Truth and how it relates to our construction of ourselves from the five skandhas of experience:
Class 2: Form and Feeling
Class 3: Perception
Class 4: Concepts
Class 5: Consciousness
There will be suggested readings from the following books:
Chögyam Trungpa, Glimpses of Abhidharma
Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
About the Teachers
Acharya Dale Asrael became a student of Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche in 1973, and has continued to practice and teach within his lineage, leading programs and retreats internationally. She is a Professor at Naropa University, and leads the Naropa University Mindfulness Instructor Training, a year-long program for people teaching meditation in transitional environments.
Ashe Acharya John Rockwell has been on the Shambhala and Buddhist path for 40 years, studying with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. His main interests are in opening the heart and senses through meditation and qigong and in bringing awareness to everyday life and the natural world.
Colin Cordner, PhD has been a Shambhala practitioner for 13 years and a student of Buddhist meditation for 17 years. He is the Director of the Ottawa Shambhala Centre, was authorized as a meditation instructor in 2016, and is also an educator and chaplain at Carleton University (Ottawa). He is the author of various academic articles on philosophers such as Plato and Michael Polanyi, and occasional bouts of poetry.
Natalie Charron, PsyD has been been a meditation practitioner for many years, and completed her meditation instructor training in 2023. She has trained in both Tara Brach's Theravadan lineage of metta practice, and now too in the Shamabhala Buddhist lineage of shamatha practice.
