Lotus Underground

Lotus Underground

By Michael Charles OwensReligion & Spirituality
Download on the App Store

Lotus Underground episodes

  • LUSB Winter 2024 Announcement
    The Ground of Being: Vasubandhu’s Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa,
    6-week, course
    Thursdays, 7:00pm - 8:30pm (Pacific)
    January 25th – February 29, 2024
    Tuition: $270
    The concept of the Trisvabhāva (‘Three Natures’) is considered the conclusion of, what might be called, Buddhist ontology, the study of ‘being.’ In the earliest forms of Buddhism, all phenomena are momentary and, therefore, quite impermanent. In the more developed forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the concept of Emptiness negates there being any thing to be. In light of Emptiness, how is the perceived world to be understood? That is the essence of the ‘Ground of Being’ and the Yogacara teaching on the Three Natures, wherein all phenomena are understood to be fabricated, dependently originated, and yet completely perfect. This six-week course is based on Vasubandhu’s brief 4th Century treatise on the Three Natures, the Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa, and is part of the LUSB Dharma series on the ‘Mind-Only’ teachings of Yogacara Buddhism.
    The Space of Time: Buddhist Chronology and Kairology from kṣaṇas to kalpas
    9:00am – 12:00pm (Pacific)
    Saturday, February 10th, 2024
    Tuition: $90
    ‘How long is a minute?’ Why do we use spatial terms like ‘long’ and ‘short’ to speak of Time? Long before Einstein and Hawkings, Buddhist thinkers such as Dōgen and Nāgārjuna had already noted the inextricable relationships between Space and Time. This presentation is an overview of these Buddhist conceptions of Time; from kṣaṇas, the ‘nano-seconds’ used to measure the arising and passing away of mental states, to kalpas, the longest measurement of time, which is immeasurable. In this way, Time will be explored in terms of chronology, the elapsing or passage of Time, and in terms kairology, specific instances or moments of Time.
    3 min
  • LOTUS UNDERGROUND - FALL 2023 - NEWSLETTER
    Welcome to another semester of the Lotus Underground School of Buddhism (LUSB). This Fall I will be offering three courses: an advanced sutra study course on one of my favorite sutras from the Ratnakūṭa (‘Heap of Jewels’) called the Universal Gateway to the Inconceivable. I will be holding a four-part meditation workshop on the Foundations of Mindfulness called Acts of Remembrance. And, there will be an opportunity for you or someone you know to take my Turning the Dharma Wheel course, the first part of the LUSB Introduction to Buddhism.
    All courses are held on-line via Zoom with the recordings available to participants afterwards.
    TURNING THE DHARMA WHEEL: Introduction to Buddhism
    Sunday mornings, 9:00 - 10:30am (Pacific), 10 week course
    October 1 – December 3, 2023
    Tuition: $300
    A traditional way of learning Buddhism is called Anguttara, ‘adding one’ – wherein the teachings of the Buddha are presented numerically in increasing order, such as the Three Poisons, the Four Noble Truths, and the Five Aggregates. This 10-week course uses a similar method of interlocking systems to explore fundamental Buddhist concepts and their interrelations. The ideas presented in each week’s session increase in complexity and build on previous session topics, thus 'turning the Dharma wheel.’ This course also provides an introduction to Buddhist texts, modern interpretations, and the transcendent applicability of Buddhism.
    This is the first course in a three-part series that make up the LUSB Introduction to Buddhism.
    Advanced Sutra Study Course: The Universal Gateway to the Inconceivable
    Thursday evenings, 6:00pm - 7:30pm (Pacific), 6 week course
    October 5 – November 9, 2023
    Tuition: $200
    The Universal Gateway is a deceptively brief sutra that is as complex as the better known Heart Sutra. This sutra is a series of short poems recited by the Buddha that describe entry into different samādhis (‘meditative absorptions’) by observing various characteristics of reality, such as sights, sounds, scents, flavors, etc., to the very characteristics of being and non-being. The poems weave together multiple elements of Mahāyana Buddhism: cosmology, samādhi, as well as the teaching of Emptiness, which is the underlying theme of the poems. The course is a deep dive into this contemplative and beautiful sutra full of big ideas, presented as a thousand-petalled lotus flower made of the seven treasures.
    Meditation Workshop: Acts of Remembering
    Tuesday evenings, 6:00pm - 7:30pm (Pacific), 4 week course
    November 7 - 28
    Tuition: $125
    Smṛti is one of the earliest terms used in Buddhism for meditation. In the modern world it is commonly translated as ‘mindfulness’, however it is helpful to know that the word smṛti indicates something like ‘remembering’ or ‘recalling’, and is traditionally contrasted with the more receptive act of śruti, ‘hearing’. There are many ways to understand how the act of remembrance relates to Buddhist meditation and other aspects of psycho-physical practice.
    This meditation workshop presents the traditional satipaṭṭhāna system of Buddhism, a four-step practice that gets progressively deeper as the object of focus, or mindful awareness, shifts from mindfulness of the body to bodily sensations, followed by mindfulness of mind-states themselves, and finally mindfulness of the very principles (dharmas) governing the construction of mind-states. Broken into four evenings, each session will include a guided meditation, periods of silent sitting, in addition to analytical discussion of these foundational ideas, and their numerous sub-categories.
    6 min

About Lotus Underground

From the publisher's feed

Bringing the wisdom of Buddhist sutras to life through recitation, translation, humor, and storytelling.