The Truth of Suffering

The Truth of Suffering--Backwards Ati, Trungpa Rinpoche's Hinayana Teachings

prerequisite:  Touch and Go meditation weekend at DMC

"In order to cut through the ambition of ego, we must understand how we set up me and my territory, how we use our projections as credentials to prove our existence.  The source of the effort to confirm our solidity is an uncertainty as to whether or not we exist.  Driven by this uncertainty, we seek to prove our own existence by finding a reference point outside ourselves, something with which to have a relationship, something solid to feel separate from.  But the whole enterprise is questionable if we really look back and back.  Perhaps we have perpetrated a gigantic hoax."

Trungpa Rinpoche

When people first hear about Buddhism and the teachings of the Hinayana which focus on "the truth of suffering" they often wonder, " Why would I want to study a religion that is so depressing?"

When the Buddha attained "so-called enlightenment" (Trungpa's words) under the bodhi tree 2600  years ago he spent 7 days wondering how he could communicate what he realized to confused people like ourselves.  Essentially, what he realized was that we only glimpse the awakened state when our habitual mind-- the mind of hope and fear-- experiences a gap.  Because we are attached to the process of mental projection and fixation (dualistic fixation) a gap in its speed and smooth operation produces tremendous anxiety and panic.  So in the Hinayana we come into contact with this world beyond habitual mind--sems-- as a full blown panic attack.  This reality is "The Truth of Suffering."  Mind beyond habitual projection and fixation is reality.  Dualistic fixation is a fantasy or dream world.  In the Hinayana we have no idea about a reality beyond habitual reference point until our habitual reference point falls apart.  That is a great shock. 

 If we hold our seat in the midst of ego's panic attack we discover a reality beyond --or as a background too --habitual mind's fantasy world.  This reality is the enlightened state but to our samsaric way of being it doesn't feel that way. 

 Trungpa Rinpoche describes this as the "cosmic joke" in the talks transcribed in " The Myth of Freedom."

This is not the Hinayana teaching you will find in Thich Nhat Hanh's or Ani Pema Chodron's books nor the Vipassana School.  This is the Hinayana of the Backwards Ati-- it has the view of Dzogchen in it already.  When we understand this Hinayana through direct experience then we have in many ways understood the fundamental teaching of Dzogchen.  Dzogchen is said to be so simple that even an uneducated farmer can understand it and reach enlightenment.  I'm not so sure about college educated Americans... But certainly uneducated farmers-- or yak herders.

cost $595.00 includes room and board