Welcome!

I’m so glad you’re with us, in this cohort of the Paths!

Since this is the first lesson, let’s go over the basics of them:

·        You will get a lesson. Our expected time for the lesson to be applied is one week, but you can keep working on them. This course is fully self-paced. This course assumes a daily practice of about 15' per lesson and should be completed in at least two months.

·        This lesson will include several aspects of the Path to practice.

·        Each month (that is, each 4 lessons), we will introduce a major module of practice.

·        At the end, there will be an exam for the Path. If you pass it, you gain access to the Guru Yoga and Tantric Empowerments, as well as P-2.

Please ping me with any questions regarding this. You can do so here or at my mail: [email protected]

The general and ultimate goals of this training

This Path (P-1) training has three basic goals:

1.     To teach you the basics of ritual, insight, and meditation practice within Buddhism.

2.     To convey the core concepts of Buddhism, specifically Mahayana Buddhism.

3.     To prepare you for Tantric practice.

This Path also has a goal that is shared with all paths: to bring Enlightenment to all beings without exception. In our Kula, we do this via the Struggle of Shambhala: to bring enlightened society here, in this world, to all beings.

The general structure of the practice: the 3+1 system

In Buddhism, you can divide systems within three major components:

·        Challenges: behavior and how to train off the meditation cushion. This is not a commandment from a deity, but a way to learn how to behave ethically. If you fail them, you will not go to hell, but the usual outcome is negative karma.

·        Absorptions: Buddhist meditation sciences, focused on granting access to different states and modes of being.

·        Insights: how to gain experiential insight into reality by transforming our experiences into wisdom by the means of learning Buddhist concepts and absorptions.

We can find this in all systems of Buddhism. However, Tantric Buddhism adds a fourth component:

·        Yogas: practices, rituals and techniques that involve Body, Speech, and Mind in a systemic, complex, and involved practice.

• We call this the 3+1 system. We will map our training using this system for the duration of the whole cohort.

Does that make sense? Let me know if it doesn't!

Lesson Summary

Welcome to the cohort of Paths! In this first lesson, we will cover the basics:

• You will receive a lesson that should ideally be applied within a week, although the course is self-paced. The course involves daily practice of around 15 minutes per lesson and should be completed in at least two months.
• Each lesson will include various aspects of the Path to practice. Every four lessons, a major module of practice will be introduced.
• At the end, there will be an exam for the Path. Passing it grants access to Guru Yoga, Tantric Empowerments, and P-2.

The goals of the Path (P-1) training are:

• To teach the basics of ritual, insight, and meditation practice in Buddhism.
• To convey core concepts of Mahayana Buddhism.
• To prepare for Tantric practice.

This Path also aims to bring Enlightenment to all beings and establish an enlightened society via the Struggle of Shambhala. The general structure of the practice follows the 3+1 system:

• Challenges: Focus on behavior training off the meditation cushion to learn ethical behavior.
• Absorptions: Meditation sciences granting access to different states of being.
• Insights: Gaining experiential insight into reality using Buddhist concepts.

Tantric Buddhism adds a fourth component:

• Yogas: Practices, rituals, and techniques involving Body, Speech, and Mind in a systemic and complex practice.

The training will be structured around this 3+1 system throughout the cohort. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask!