Practice Library

The Meaning of the Path of Dharma

A four-part course with Lama Alan Wallace on the threefold training in ethics, samadhi and wisdom, and the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma.

At the age of 29 Gautama left his royal palace not simply to practise Dharma, which he could have done as a prince, but to find a path to complete freedom from suffering and its inner causes. That is the fourth noble truth, and it consists essentially of the threefold training in ethics, samadhi and wisdom. Across these four parts Lama Alan Wallace takes up that theme in relation to the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma: the teachings on the Four Noble Truths, the Perfection of Wisdom, and Buddha nature. The course works through what virtue, Dharma and the path actually mean, the Buddha's instruction to Bahiya, emptiness and bodhicitta, and closes with an inquiry into who or what the observer is.

What this course covers

• What the fourth noble truth asks of a practitioner
• The threefold training in ethics, samadhi and wisdom
• The Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma
• The Four Noble Truths and the Perfection of Wisdom
• Buddha nature, emptiness and bodhicitta
• The Buddha's instruction to Bahiya
• Looking for the observer

Sessions

1. Part One - Virtue, Dharma and the Path 78 minutes
2. Part Two - The Bahiya Instruction, and How Much Jhana Is Needed 40 minutes
3. Part Three - Emptiness, Bodhicitta and Buddha Nature 81 minutes
4. Part Four - The Fourth Time, and a Laboratory for Contemplatives 51 minutes