Samantabhadra’s King of Prayers is a practice text composed to help us cultivate the heart qualities of kindness, care, concern, love and compassion. Developing these qualities will help bring us peace of mind, confidence and a heightened sense of purpose, as well as nurturing and strengthening our relationships.
Geshe Tashi returns to Jetsun Drakpa Shedrup to guide us through the material, who in turn references a series of commentaries including one by Nagarjuna in the 2nd century CE.
As always, Geshe Tashi’s emphasis in these teachings is on how we can best experience the material for ourselves. He takes special care to help us build up and strengthen the foundations of our mindfulness and meditation practices.
Geshe la begins this class reading from Chapter 1 of the Guide to the Bodhisattvas Way of Life, verses 27 & 28. He emphasises how meaningful it is to help and support others. Just having the simple thought to help others is worth all the offerings to the Buddhas we can imagine, “what need is there to speak of actual deeds that bring about the genuine well-being of others?” He advises us, every now and again, to stop, think and contemplate: we have these yearnings to be free of suffering, to have happiness, but how do we best fulfil them? What are the causes for the genuine happiness of ourselves and others?
The following Aspiration helps us to address this. What do we need to do? Using everyday examples, Geshe la really brings the relevance of this aspiration to life.
11. Aspiration to the Different Methods for Entering into the “Good Actions.”
a) Seeing the Buddhas and their Pure Realms
b) Listening to the Speech of the Buddhas
c) Hearing the Turning of the Wheels of Dharma
d) Entering into All the Aeons.
Experiencing The King of Prayers classes will continue every Sunday in January. We’ll be online from 2.15pm UK time for some social time, the class will begin at 2.30pm.
Wishing you the very best for 2021,
Your Admin Team
You can find details of upcoming classes as well as the text available for download here.
https://foundationsofbuddhistthought.org/