In January 2006, Lama Marut taught the first Dharma Essentials course over four Wednesday evenings at Evelie Sabatie’s yoga studio in Tucson, Arizona. As he put it on the first night, this course is for everybody (or anyone trying to do something with their lives other than shop!)
Dharma Essentials 1 is based on Je Tsongkapa’s The Three Principal Paths, with commentary by Pabongka Rinpoche, covering:
- The teacher and the student – what Dharma means, the daily essentials of a spiritual life, how to find a good teacher and be a good student.
- Renunciation – not giving everything up, but giving up our attachment to suffering. “We’re either in the middle of a disaster or we’re between them.”
- The wish for enlightenment – compassion, love and bodhicitta, and the seven-step meditation that ends with realising “It’s my job.”
- Correct view – karma, interdependence and no-self. “You have a self, okay? You just don’t have the self you thought you did.”
Each class ends with a guided meditation. As Lama Marut says, “The way to change the world is to change you.”
Lama Marut taught these courses as the essentialised version of Geshe Michael Roach's 18 Asian Classics Institute courses.The full ACI courses can be found at > The Knowledge Base →
All four classes are now available to listen to and download, along with the course book.