Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life & Rage as a Path to Liberation
With Pema Khandro and Geshe Sonam
August 29, 2020
This daylong retreat with esteemed guest Geshe Sonam and Pema Khandro is the culmination of a week-long series about the practice of compassion and care in troubled times.
In the face of trauma, fear, aggression… what is the place of love and empathy? In the midst of moral outrage and the imperative to change society, how do we proceed without magnifying aggression and hate? This series is dedicated to contemplating possibilities for facing difficulties with a mind set upon altruistic action and connection with others. The “Bodhisattva” is a Buddhist term for a person dedicated to care for self, others and the world through compassionate action.
- Explore alternate theories of social change
- Delve into perspectives for harnessing anger, frustration and grief
- Investigate possibilities beyond spiritual by-passing
- Explore the integration of action with compassion.
- Consider the relationship between self-care, caring for others and caring for our world.
- Delve into intersectional identities in a complex and diverse world.
Join internationally renowned Buddhist scholar and teacher, Pema Khandro and esteemed guests n this week-long event dedicated to opening up a conversation about how Buddhist values might unfold in the midst of an avalanche of intense situations. Weekday interviews followed by Saturday retreat on The Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life & Rage as a Path to Liberation.
Retreat Schedule
*All times are listed in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) (UTC-7) Timezone Converter
8:30-10:30amGuide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life
Geshe Sonam will teach on Chapter Six to the Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Geshe Sonam is a Geshe Lharampa, having earned the highest possible degree in Buddhist philosophy. He is an interpreter to the Dalai Lama. Since Geshe-la will be giving this program from India, we are starting at 8:30am PST/ 11:30 EST instead of our normal starting time
10:30am-10:45 – Short break
11am-1pm
Rage as a Path to Liberation 
Pema Khandro will give a class on Buddhistperspectives on anger, rage, power and fierce compassion. The class will explore the relationship between Mahayana & Vajrayana perspectives on anger, compassion and resilience. It will draw on a question of how the bodhisattva ideal gets variantly interpreted in Tibetan literature and how Tibetan Buddhism came to be known as a champion of non-violence
1:00 – 2:30pm – Lunch Break
2:30 – 3:00pm – Community Tea Time: Discussion Groups
3:00 – 3:45pm – Group Chanting & Meditation led by Satya
3:45 – 4:15pm – Question and Answers Session with Pema Khandro
4:15 – 4:30pm – Bodhisattva Vow Recitation & Closing
Leaders
Pema Khandro is an internationally renowned teacher and scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Ordained in the Nyingma lineage, enthroned as a tulku, and trained as an academic, her teachings celebrate the dynamic coalescence of tradition and the modern context. She is the founder of Ngakpa International and its three projects: The Buddhist Studies Institute, Dakini Mountain and the Yogic Medicine Institute. In her work as a Buddhist teacher she is an authorized Lama and lineage holder of the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions and was enthroned to carry on the lineage of her predecessor, the first Pema Khandro, an early twentieth century…
Learn more about Pema Khandro
After doing his primary education, Geshe Ngawang Sonam joined Sera Monastic University in 1995 to devote his life to intensive study and practice of Buddhism. In 2008, he was selected by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to become one of the English translators for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since then, he has accompanied His Holiness to various places in India and to around nine countries around the world. Following his more than twenty years of intensive monastic studies on the five major treatises of Buddhism, and upon clearing all the six successive years of examination, in…
Learn more about Geshe Sonam