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The Uttaratantra Shastra of Asanga - Continued and finished - Teachings by Philippe Cornu
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The Uttaratantra Shastra of Asanga - Continued and finished - Teachings by Philippe Cornu

Live courses from November 2024 to May 2025.
Then available as VOD on this page.


+ Organised by Rigpa France + 

During this study event, Philippe Cornu - Rigpa Senior Teacher, writer and Tibetan translator - will continue studying one of the key texts of the Mahâyâna, which presents buddha nature.
Philippe Cornu teaches in French and will be translated live into English. 

About this course

We might ask ourselves: "If the nature of buddhahood is within me, why can't I see it straight away?" Because, like gold buried in its ore, it is veiled by the tendencies we have accumulated since time immemorial. In other words, if it's possible to become a Buddha, an Awakened One, it's because we've always been that way, even if we're not aware of it.

The Uttaratantraśāstra (Skt.) or Gyü Lama (Tib.) is a famous and essential work by Asaṅga devoted to the buddha nature present in all beings—not just awakened beings. Written in the fourth century under the inspiration of the bodhisattva Maitreya, this text disappeared and was rediscovered two centuries later; it is the indispensable key to understanding Enlightenment, describing its qualities and the Three Bodies (trikāya). While it is part of the Mahāyāna, it opens the way to Vajrayāna and Dzogchen, both of which are based on the discovery of buddha nature within oneself.

This course, which continues the one given last year on the same text, will take place between November 2024 and May 2025 and will also include 10 sessions. After the first 40 stanzas - all devoted to the first three Vajra points (the Three Jewels) - already explored in depth last year, we will explain the main points of the rest of the text right up to the end, concentrating on the most important stanzas. Still from the perspective of the Buddha's empty and luminous nature, we will go through the last four Vajra points: the Element or tathāgatagarbha, the nature of Awakening, the qualities that flow from it and the activities of an Awakened One.


Dates & Schedule


Each teaching takes place from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

Dates of the live teachings :
- 4 November 2024
- 18 November 2024
- 2 December 2024
- 16 December 2024
- 13 January 2025
- 27 January 2025
Then one Monday a month (dates to be confirmed)

Translation

Philippe Cornu teaches in French and will be translated live into English. 

Study material

To follow this course you will need an English translation of the root text. Philippe Cornu mainly recommends:
• Buddha Nature (with Jamgön Kongtrul's commentary) translated by Rosemarie Fuchs (Snow Lion, New York 2000)

You might also be interested to read:
• Buddha-Nature, Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra by Arya Maitreya with commentary by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, edited by Alex Trisoglio, Khyentse Foundation, 2007. A free copy can be requested online at siddharthasintent.org. 

Open contribution

You can contribute whatever is currently appropriate and possible for you. Our recommendations are:
- Suggested contribution: 80 € 
- If you want to give more: 100 € 
- If you have less means: 64 €

Note: if you have already specifically subscribed to this event as part of your Rigpa France membership, you can contribute €0.

Speaker

PhilippeCornu.png 57.19 KB
Tibetologist, specialist of Buddhism in all its forms and long-time practitioner, Philippe Cornu has devoted his career to teaching and transmitting Buddhist philosophy in universities (INALCO, UCLouvain) as well as in Buddhist centers. He is the author of the Dictionnaire Encyclopédique du Bouddhisme and of the book Le bouddhisme : une philosophie du bonheur ? published by Seuil. He is also the author of numerous translations of essential Tibetan texts such as the Five Treatises on the Mind alone by Vasubandhu or the Diamond Sutra and other Sutras of the Middle Way published by Fayard. Philippe Cornu has been appointed as a senior teacher in the Rigpa Sangha in August 2021.