Theme: Awakening Faith in the Mahayana (Mahāyāna śraddhotpādaśāstra)
Place: Buddha Pada (buddhapada.in), Kalimpong, India
Date: 13th – 22th Jan 2023

Audio: Download or Archive.org
Note: Recording from morning 20th failed.
Text: Mindfulness of Breathing is an extract from Asanga’s Shravakabhumi (Stages of Disciples), translated from Tibetan and Sanskrit by B. Alan Wallace. Please use this text only to supplement listening to the lectures. The text is not intended for free distribution.

We thank Buddha Pada and Br. Tenzin for their kindness and sharing these great lectures.

Retreat with Bhante Dhammadipa: The Study of Mahayana Shraddhotpada Shastra (Attributed to Ashvaghosha)

In the Mahayana tradition, one is encouraged to combine Shamatha and Vipassana even before realizing the Ultimate Reality. In the non-dual tradition, Shamatha is the base for the penetration of the non-dualistic nature of the mind. This penetration is done either on the Alaya tradition, or on the basis of the Buddha-nature tradition. Both are traced back to the teachings of the Bodhisattva Maitreya.

In this course, Bhante Dhammadipa will explore Shamatha practice from the point of view of Buddha-nature (Tathagatagarbha), explained with reference to Alaya or store-consciousness. We will discover meditation as the base for insight into the non-dual nature of mind, the mind which is pure and always present, and the application of this method in understanding not only the Zen tradition, but also Tibetan Vajrayana (Dzogchen / Mahamudra).

The Awakening of Faith in Mahayana is a text attributed to Ashwaghosha, who was clearly a Shravastivada poet and philosopher. In the Chinese tradition this text is widely studied as the philosophical foundation of the Zen tradition, and it is also related to the Pure land tradition.