Unlocking the Extraordinary: The Yoga of Everyday Life • Oct 1 & 3, 7 - 9pm

A Lady Lamas Series, For Women by Women

Nancy Allen, Jennifer MacFarlane, Sherry Tenant, Suzanne Wise, Roisin Brennan, Mirian Parker

Discover how to use Buddhist wisdom to abandon old habits, dissolve ordinary views, and cut at the very root of what's holding you back. Rooted in Master Shantideva's poetic and profound Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, we'll explore simple practices to transform ordinary life into something magical.

RSVP: evewsmith@gmail.com

All donations benefit the Three Year Retreat for Peace

Mahamudra: The Six Flavors of Emptiness • September 24 & 25, 2 - 4pm

Please join Michale Hewett for two afternoons, exploring and deconstructing how unexamined beliefs in permanence, ownership, accidents, labels, essences, and nihilism force us to experience inner and outer suffering. Through experiencing the ultimate/stainless nature of our own minds, suffering can ultimately be stopped.

ACI IX: Ethics with John Stilwell, Tuesdays 7-9pm, beginning Sept 20

Why do ethics matter? What's the point in taking vows; what are they, what do they do? Why do all spiritual traditions emphasize ethics? This course explains the role of Buddhist ethics in achieving enlightenment—why living an ethical life is the secret key to deep meditation, experiencing ultimate reality, and paradise. Every happiness and success stems from ethical living, and we explore methods to train in ethics, keep vows from being damaged, and clean past negativity.

One day vows, lifetime lay vows, freedom vows, along with the three trainings and an outline of novice, intermediate, and fully ordained monastic vows are included based upon the Sutra on Vowed Morality (Vinaya Sutra) by Master Gunaprabha (500 AD), with a commentary from The Essence of the Ocean of Vinaya (Dulwa Gyatsoy Nyingpo) by Je Tsongkapa (1357-1419).

John Stilwell is a former director of the Asian Classics Institute (ACI), Godstow Retreat Center, and was General Manger of Land of Medicine Buddha. He is an executive and father who began teaching yoga 20 years ago, and has taught Buddhist sutra and tantra in the tradition of Je Tsongkapa for 15 years with a contemporary perspective highly relevant to daily life. John received transmission of the 18 Courses from Arya Sumati Dharmadhara, Geshe Michael Roach.

Weekend Meditation Retreat with Venerable Thupten Jinpa • Sept 17 – 18

Saturday, September 17, 11 – 5pm

Sunday, September 18, 10 – 4pm

With commitment and willingness to learn, NYC Dharma students can steadily progress from short to long term retreats.

In this requested 2-day teaching, Venerable Jinpa will help prepare students for short and long-term meditation retreats.

· Learn how to meditate happily and free of guilt despite your busy schedule

· Understand what to meditate on and how, for retreats both short (1 – 4 weeks) and long (1 – 6 months)

· Know what to avoid and what may come up for you

Venerable Jinpa is a student of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin with more than four years’ solitary retreat experience.

Renunciation without Aversion with Venerable Thupten Jinpa • Wednesday, Sept 14, 7:30pm

Please join us tonight with a very special teaching by a beloved teacher. Renunciation doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy life. Find out how the opposite is true from a being who emanates pure joy.

Yoga Gives Back • Saturday, Sept 17 • All Day Yoga Fundraiser

YOGA GIVES BACK UNITES GLOBAL YOGA COMMUNITY
TO SAY “THANK YOU MOTHER INDIA”
FUNDRAISER ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2011
Unprecedented Global Yoga Event to Give Back to India,
the Birthplace of Yoga

Please join us for a full day of yoga classes where all donations will to the Yoga Gives Back organization who helps support impoverished women and children in India.

Yoga Gives Back (YGB) is a grassroots organization set up to raise funds through donation yoga classes to support impoverished women and children in India, with an expanding team of volunteers and supporters across the US and the world. Yoga is a gift from ancient India, embraced by the West. But 76% of India’s population lives below the poverty line, while $ 6 billion is spent on yoga in the U.S. alone each year.

The Day’s Teaching Schedule is as follows:

9:00 - 10:30 Maura Nolan
10:30 - 12:00 Heather Hughes
12:15 - 1:45 John Son
2:00 - 3:30 Shanna Honkomp
3:30 – 5:00 Marina Garde

“Thank You Mother India” started as a local fundraiser for Yoga Gives Back organized by YGB Ambassador Jorgen Christiansson of Omkar108 Yoga in Los Angeles alongside MahaMondo.com, in October 2010. For its second year, YGB is expanding the event into a fundraiser with global presence. Joining to support this event are YGB Ambassadors Kino Macgregor, Sophie Herbert, and Eddie Stern of Ashtanga Yoga New York. As of today, nearly 50 yoga studios from 10 countries, many across the US as well as in the UK, Hong Kong, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Sweden, Japan and Australia, are planning to host special events on this day.

The Devil Debates an Angel: An Ancient Tibetan Teaching to End War • Sept 9 & 10 • Scottsdale, AZ