Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path
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Sunday, November 5, 2017
4:00 PMto 5:30 PM
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Sitagu Buddha Vihara (sitagu.org/austin/)
9001 Honeycomb Dr., Austin, TX (edit map)
- In the Dining Hall (up the hill)
- This is an introductory 12-week course in Buddhism. It provides a comprehensive and detailed understanding of Buddhism based on the earliest sources. This is Buddhism as far as can be discerned as the Buddha taught it and before the development of distinct sects and schools, such as Zen, Tibetan and Theravadin. This course provides a theoretical understanding as a support for practice. As such, it complements the various practice-oriented activities at the vihara.
The course consists of two six-week sections:
• Buddhist Life covers the basic values, understandings and practices that constitute a devout Buddhist life in a Buddhist community. This is the Buddhism as it is lived by most Buddhists, that Buddhist children learn, that defines the norms of the Buddhist community. It is primarily grounded in ethics, virtue and harmony.
• Buddhist Path covers the course of intensive training that lead to higher spiritual attainments (up to awakening) and that is traditionally undertaken by relatively few Buddhists. It is primarily grounded in human psychology and meditation, but builds on the elements of a Buddhist life.
The 2017-2018 schedule of topics is as follows:
BUDDIST LIFE
1. Buddha, November 5
2. Generosity, November 12
3. Harmlessness, November 19