Dharma Teachings By Lama Mark Webber

The class reads the section on the spiritual master's instruction: the four obstacles that keep a being from Buddhahood and the four instructions that remedy them - impermanence, the faults of Samsara and Karma, loving kindness and compassion, and Bodhicitta. It dwells on attachment to peace as the most refined of the four traps, and on Bodhicitta as the category that holds every Mahayana teaching. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English translations: 1) "Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom" by Je Gampopa, translated by Ken and Katia Holmes, 1995, Altea, Forres, Scotland. 2) "The

The class reads the Vimuttimagga's chapter on the good friend alongside Gampopa's third chapter, noting that Kalyanamitra means a preeminent friend rather than a buddy, and that a teacher has to be searched out rather than waited for. It then works through the four classes of spiritual master, with the text's verdict that the ordinary master is the greatest benefactor, since only through one does a beginner gain the merit to meet the others. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English translations: 1) "Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom" by Je Gampopa, translated by Ken and Katia Ho

The class spends its first third on meditation practice - acceptance that is really dullness, and brightening the mind by raising the eyes and building sensation at the tip of the nose until it fizzes like champagne. It then begins the third chapter, on the spiritual master, comparing three renderings of Kalyanamitra and tracing guru to heavy, heavy with wisdom like a tree weighted down with fruit. It reads the three similes for the master: a guide to an unknown place, an escort through a dangerous one, and a boatman across a big river. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English t

The class finishes the chapter on the precious human life with its three kinds of faith. Trusting faith is confidence in cause and result, the opposite of fatalism; longing faith recognizes enlightenment as worth pursuing; lucid faith is clear confidence in the Three Jewels. For the last, the class offers an exercise: ask what else could possibly liberate, and see whether trees or politicians survive the question. It then reads the four ways Dharma gets abandoned - through desire, aversion, fear and ignorance - and the four Maras, ending on fascination with meditative experience as the most insidious of them. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation

The class opens with the dictionary root of sila, virtue, as a natural rather than acquired way of living, then reads the chapter's turn from how hard a human life is to obtain to how easily it is lost. The line "it is inappropriate to enjoy myself" is taken not as a ban on pleasure but as a warning against frittering a precious life away on enjoyment that serves no liberation. It closes on shraddha, faith, and finds intimacy among its meanings: confidence comes from knowing something in the bones, as far from reading about meditation as a Skype call is from being in the room. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but

The class continues the chapter on the precious human life, reading that a human life is defined by capacity - the ability to attain either the higher realms or definite goodness - and Atisha's three types of person: the inferior who seeks the pleasures of Samsara, the mediocre who seeks only their own peace, and the superior who wants to exhaust the suffering of others. It takes up virtue as sila, actions that cool rather than heat, and closes with Marpa telling Milarepa that had he finished the last tower he would never have needed the years of retreat in the mountains. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but refe

The class turns to the second chapter, on the precious human life, and reads the eight unfavorable conditions not as other realms but as states a human passes through in a single day. It also takes a hard question about compassion offered where it cannot be received, and answers that the weight of an act lies in the intention behind it rather than in the act itself. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English translations: 1) "Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom" by Je Gampopa, translated by Ken and Katia Holmes, 1995, Altea, Forres, Scotland. 2) "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation", b

The class covers the Mahayana family and warns that the labels are easily misapplied - a Vajrayana practitioner can drift, unnoticed, into practicing only for their own liberation. In place of berating oneself for falling short of it, it offers a kinder exercise: write down the qualities already present, the absence of deceit and rudeness, the loving-kindness, as evidence that the nature described is not somewhere else. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English translations: 1) "Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom" by Je Gampopa, translated by Ken and Katia Holmes, 1995, Altea, For

The class reads Mipham on the four veils that obscure Buddha Nature and the four things that clear them: interest in the Mahayana, wisdom, meditative concentration and love. It then separates two things easily confused - perfectionism, which is neurotic and insists that things be perfect, and perfecting, the patient work of drawing the best out of a tea, a crystal or a being. It closes with Milarepa handing the monk Gampopa a skull cup of beer to see whether he would drink it. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English translations: 1) "Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom" by Je Gam

The class takes the first chapter, which begins at the top with Buddha Nature rather than working up to it. Most of the hour goes into Tathagatagarbha itself - gata meaning gone but also arrived, a gate that opens both ways, and garbha meaning womb or inner chamber, filled with potential - set against the ordinary conviction that the world is only as wide as it currently looks. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English translations: 1) "Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom" by Je Gampopa, translated by Ken and Katia Holmes, 1995, Altea, Forres, Scotland. 2) "The Jewel Ornament of Li

The class reads the text's introduction across three translations at once and spends most of its time on two words. Samsara traces back to crushing, breaking and dissipating rather than to any cycle; Nirvana to a flame blown out - not a life extinguished, but the fuel of confusion exhausted. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English translations: 1) "Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom" by Je Gampopa, translated by Ken and Katia Holmes, 1995, Altea, Forres, Scotland. 2) "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation", by sGampo.pa, translated by Herbert Guenther, 1971, Shambala, Berkeley.

The opening class of the retreat sets the level of mindfulness the text will demand, starting not with the mind but with the fingertips on bark and lichen, on the grounds that the discrimination trained on the taste of a tea or the grain of a piece of wood is the same one later needed to taste the qualities of mind. It then lays out the lineage behind the text, ending on Milarepa's reply to Gampopa, who could sit for seven days without a thought: good control of the mind, but not a glimpse of its nature. This series of 60 Dharma talks were recorded during a retreat at Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre, Galiano Island, during July and August of 2012. They are a detailed exposition and commentary on the famous Tibetan text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation- the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings" by Je Gampopa (1079-1153). Lama Yongdu primarily read from Khenpo Gyaltsen Rinpoche's 1998 translation (Snow Lion, Ithaca, New York) but referred to and used two other English translations: 1) "Gems of Dharma,

The class is the teaching given before a refuge and Bodhisattva ceremony, and turns on the difference between one's own liberation and Buddhahood, described as the same realization extended to all beings. Shabkar's heart advice to his students supplies the correction: emptiness without compassion is an empty house without a landlord, and the years spent meditating on the one should be matched by years on the other. This class was recorded at the Crystal Mountain Retreat Centre on Galiano Island, Canada, during a retreat on Gampopa's text, "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation". The talk was given prior to the traditional Mahayana ceremony for the Taking of Refuge, the Five Precepts,the Bodhisattva commitments, and the bestowal of a Dharma Name. Reference is made to Gampopa's text.

The class sets two bowls of water on the floor to make its point - that attention goes to the bowl and never to the water, to the objects of the mind and never to awareness itself. It then works the mirror at length: what its properties actually are, whether anything ever sticks in it, and what it means for a mind to be called mirror-like. In this series of teachings, Lama Mark Webber is giving instruction on "Cutting Through The Root". The teachings were given in 2012.

A short session given over entirely to the mirror box, with participants taking turns: the hidden left hand starts to move, then to feel, and in several cases to itch and be relieved, though nothing is touching it. The question left standing is where pain and itching actually happen. In this series of teachings, Lama Mark Webber is giving instruction on "Cutting Through The Root". The teachings were given in 2012.

The class takes up the moon in the water and the monkeys who climb out on a branch to grab it, then turns the same question on the nose, the hand and the self, each of them grasped as a concept rather than a thing. A blind-spot card and a can of shaving cream carry the point, and it closes on Anupassana, the repeated seeing in different modes that is what actually matures insight. In this series of teachings, Lama Mark Webber is giving instruction on "Cutting Through The Root". The teachings were given in 2012.

The class works from a line illusion that stays convincing even once it is known to be false: understanding alone changes nothing, and the physiology has to be retrained like a new language or an instrument. It settles on a definition worth writing down - an illusion is not something that does not exist, but something that is not what it seems. In this series of teachings, Lama Mark Webber is giving instruction on "Cutting Through The Root". The teachings were given in 2012.

The class runs a series of exercises - a playing card brought slowly into view, an espresso cup that turns out to hold water, a hand raised with the eyes shut - to show how little of any experience is perceived rather than filled in from memory. The point is not that concepts are the enemy, but that taking them for the thing itself is. In this series of teachings, Lama Mark Webber is giving instruction on "Cutting Through The Root". The teachings were given in 2012.

The class opens a weekend on cutting through the root by arguing that the objects were never the problem - changing the diet, the posture, the possessions or even the religion only swaps one attachment for another. Its image is the cinema: putting a hand into the projector beam does not stop the film, it only moves the picture onto the hand, and the film ends only when the projector itself is switched off. In this series of teachings, Lama Mark Webber is giving instruction on "Cutting Through The Root". The teachings were given in 2012.

The class returns to mirrors, opening with Marpa prostrating to a vision of Hevajra rather than to Naropa, who tells him he has mistaken the guru. It then turns to Ramachandran's mirror box, which relieves phantom limb pain with nothing but a reflection - an illusory cause with a real effect. In this series of teaching, Lama Mark Webber is giving instruction on the nature of illusion. He is using a number of classic images like the moon in the water, a mirage, dream and others. The teaching was given in 2012. Short table of contents: E01 Introduction. E02 Bodhicitta. E03 Emptiness and Compassion. E04 View, Progress and Signs. E05 Intro and Dew Drops. E06 Magical Illusion. E07 Moon Body and Clouds. E08 Moon. E09 Moon and Visual Distortion. E10 Visual Distortion. E11 Mirage. E12 Dream (1). E13 Dream (2). E14 Dream (3). E15 Echo and Music (1). E16 Echo and Music (2). E17 City of Gandharvas. E18 Optical Illusion. E19 Rainbows. E20 Lightning and Thunder. E21 Bubbles and Foam. E22 Mirror (1). E23 Mirror (2) and Gu