Devotion as a Path to Divinisation and Buddhahood
A three-part workshop with Eva Natanya on devotion and guru yoga, seen from the view of Dzogchen and compared with Christian divinisation.
A three-part workshop, recorded in 2020, in which Dr Eva Natanya takes up devotion as a path to Buddhahood and to divinisation, seen from the view of the Great Perfection, or Dzogchen. She combines talks and guided meditations in a spirit of inquiry and openness to interfaith questions as they arise today, while remaining deeply rooted in the ancient principles of both Buddhist and Christian contemplative practice. The questions she works with are these. What can a path of genuine devotion to the guru look like in Buddhist practice? What is the basis for authentic refuge and faith in the Buddha? What are some of the benefits and pitfalls of devotional practice when it is applied to human teachers? And how might a contemplative path of transformative devotion in Buddhism be fruitfully compared with the path of worship and divinisation, or theosis, described in both Eastern and Western Christian traditions? Each of the three sessions contains teaching and guided meditation, and the last of them is given over to questions on guru yoga and lineage.
What this course covers
- What a path of genuine devotion to the guru looks like in Buddhist practice
- The basis for authentic refuge and faith in the Buddha
- The benefits and the pitfalls of devotion when it is applied to human teachers
- Devotion in Buddhism set beside worship and divinisation, or theosis, in Christianity
- Christ as yidam
- Guided meditations relating to each topic
Sessions
- S1 - Levels of Devotion to the Teacher 98 minutes
- S2 - Christ as Yidam 90 minutes
- S3 - Questions on Guru Yoga and Lineage 59 minutes