Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, the sūtra concludes with the Buddha entrusting the teaching for future generations, describing conditions for preserving it, and highlighting the distinction between inferior and superior bodhisattvas (and their obstacles) — a call to serious practice and transmission.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 12

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, Vimalakīrti transports the assembly mentally to the buddha-field of Akṣobhya (Abhirati) to show the non-locality of buddha-fields and to elaborate the inconceivable scope of the bodhisattva’s vision.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 11

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, in conversation with Śāriputra, Vimalakīrti distinguishes between what is destructible (phenomena, conditioned things) and what is indestructible (wisdom, mind-essence, emptiness) — pointing to the deeper Mahāyāna path.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 10

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, Vimalakīrti miraculously brings a vast buddhafield’s feast into his small space in Vaiśālī; this acts as both a dramatic demonstration of skillful means and a metaphor for the bodhisattva’s capacity to bring all buddha-fields, teachings and beings into immediate contact.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 9

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, it presents thirty-something responses from bodhisattvas about how they practice non-duality; though their answers are commendable, Vimalakīrti shows that non-duality cannot be fully conceptualised. His teaching culminating in silence underscores that ultimate reality is beyond words.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 8

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, Vimalakīrti addresses the assembly about how the bodhisattva’s activities correspond to the buddhas’ family (tathāgatagotra). He shows that even conventional “worldly” roles and activities, when aligned with wisdom and compassion, participate in the buddha-family.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 7

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, a female divine figure emerges and serves as part of the sūtra’s dramatic presentation of non-duality, showing that the insight of emptiness/non-duality is accessible beyond traditional gender lines and as an expression of wisdom incarnate.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 6

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, Vimalakīrti further displays his mastery of skillful means: miraculously accommodating a vast assembly and showing that true liberation transcends dualities such as ordained/laity, diving deep into non-duality and the bodhisattva’s freedom.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 5

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, Mañjuśrī agrees to visit Vimalakīrti. In the ensuing dialogue Vimalakīrti reflects on the nature of illness (both bodily and existential) and shows how the bodhisattva’s “sickness” symbolises samsaric affliction and the path to liberation.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 4

Join us as we explore the rich repository of Buddhist Sutras, Pali Canon, Chinese Ta-ts’ang-ching, and Tibetan Kangyur every first Sunday of the month after the Sunday Service. Sūtra (Pali. sutta) means ‘something that was heard from someone else’ and usually connotes ‘a discourse’.

In this chapter of the Sūtra, the Buddha invites his disciples and bodhisattvas to visit Vimalakīrti (who is ill), but they hesitate—feeling unequipped for his penetrating questions and skillful means. This chapter introduces the tension: conventional disciples vs. the profundity Vimalakīrti embodies.

Facilitators: Lama Matthew Rice (Lobpön Palden Gocha) and Daniel Scharpenburg
Text: The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti” Chapter 3