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 Tashi begins the class quoting by heart from Chapter 3 of A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by Shantideva. He describes how the five great elements, as the building blocks of our planet, are continuously producing endless things to support living beings. Like the five great elements, Shantideva writes, may my body, speech and mind serve living beings for a very long time.
Turning to our main text, The King of Prayers, Geshe la continues discussing the different ways we can dedicate the good works we have done.
Last week (verses 55 and 56), we looked at:
1. The Dedication that Follows the Bodhisattvas
2. The Dedication that Follows the Buddhas
This week (verses 57,58,59) Geshe la covers:
3. The Dedication towards Actualising the Result
4. The Dedication towards Receiving a Prophecy from the Buddhas
What do we do at the point of death, when we go from one life to the next? How can we be born in a Buddha paradise? How can we gain the best life to benefit others? Geshe la explains there are different approaches, including the dedications we are making here, but the key, he says, is to familiarise ourselves with refuge and bodhicitta while we are still alive.
Geshe la finishes the class with an impromptu Q&A
We hope you will join us again on Sunday 28th March, an hour later this time because of international time changes, at 3.15pm for a 3.30pm start.
With best wishes,
The Admin Team
You can find details of upcoming classes as well as the text available for download here.
https://foundationsofbuddhistthought.org/