Four evenings of Dharma Essentials Course III: Applied Meditation, taught in Rockport on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, December 19–22, 2006.

The course is based on The Stages of Meditation (Bhāvanākrama) by Master Kamalaśīla (c. 750 AD), with presentations by Je Tsongkapa and Pabongka Rinpoche. Lama Marut explains what meditation really is – “habituating your mind” to something worthwhile – and the life that supports it: a quiet place, living simply, contentment and ethics. Over the four nights he teaches the preliminaries and posture, the five problems that arise on the cushion and their corrections, and the nine stages of meditation, using the steps of the path (Lam Rim) as the material to meditate on – from this precious human life to altruism and the six perfections.

Each class ends with a guided meditation.

Dharma Essentials are the essentialised version of Geshe Michael Roach's 18 Asian Classics Institute courses. The full ACI courses can be found at The Knowledge Base →