Portsmouth Buddhist Center

The Myth of the Path: Our Focus for 2019

On Thu, 3 January, 2019 - 20:34
shraddhavani's picture
shraddhavani

Join us this year at PBC as we explore The Myth of the Path

In Buddhism generally, the goal of the path the Buddha unfolded is understood as Enlightenment, Awakening, Nirvana. That high ideal can be deeply inspiring to hear about, and it can seem a bit far off, or even too abstract for us to have a meaningful relationship with it. Sometimes it is the path itself that we connect with in a heartfelt way, as we have the opportunity to walk it, to feel it, every day. In walking the path we develop an intuition for where it is leading us.

Listen to some inspiring visions of the path:



The Path of the Buddha’s Delight

Generating Bodhi Mind

The Stages of the Spiritual Path

Over the course of 2019 at PBC, we will be exploring the Myth of the Path from different perspectives, both in our weekly Sunday program and in our week night courses.

We will begin on Sunday January 6th with a 6-part series on Visions of the Path. In this six-week series we will hear from various Dharma-farers about their approaches to practice. What are the core themes and myths that guide them, and how do those myths inspire and work out in the day-to-day? We will see a rich landscape unfold before us, and have the opportunity to find ourselves on it both as travelers and map-makers.

In our second Sunday series, we will turn to the Pali Canon, to acquaint ourselves with the idea of the spiritual path as articulated in the oldest stories about the Buddha and his teachings. And we will follow that up by looking at later Buddhist images of the path as the wheel of life incorporating the spiral path to liberation. We will also spend some weeks exploring the role of inspiration and faith in our path of practice. 

Throughout we will evoke and investigate the traditional expression of “going for refuge” to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha as a framework for understanding the spiritual path. And we will look at the relationship between the path and the goal, touching on vision and transformation where the path is a roadmap for how we can change our lives.

What kind of explorers are we, and how do we understand the path? Is it a clear idea, an open way, immediately accessible to us? Does it seem like a foggy dream that we have a hard time remembering? Does our sense of the path change from day to day? How has it changed throughout our lives? What themes or myths are lodged at the core of our own sense of the journey, influencing our course? Come explore all these questions and more with us! 

We look forward to you joining us for an exciting year of meditation, reflection, and contemplation of Dharma teachings and conversation, all in a warm spirit of friendship and mutual support that’s perhaps the most important feature of this path we are traveling together. 🙏🏻

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