A GUDE TO THE  

BODHISATTVA'S 

WAY OF LIFE

{ PART 3 } 

  

How do we deal with all the suffering in the world?  And how do we behave in a loving and compassionate way to those around us when our mind is upset and afflicted?  Through love, caring and compassion-this is the training of a Bodhisattva.  This is the third course in a three part series based upon A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life (Bodhisattvacharya Avatara) by Master Shantideva (700 AD), and this classic ancient work is considered the best book ever written to learn to live as a bodhisattva.

In part Three of The Guide, we delve deeply into the Perfection of Wisdom, which is the culmination of the previous five perfections.  Wisdom is know by many names--suchness, emptiness, ultimate reality--and experiencing it directly is the main point of Buddhism, leading to the elimination of all pain and suffering and attainment of Nirvana and Enlightenment.  How do we do it?  This Course explores ultimate reality, illusion, wrong ideas we have about our existence, and how to personally experience the highest, ultimate reality to end suffering.

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.