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Vajra Yoga Practices Through the Buddha's Three Vehicles
Welcome + Course Materials
Welcome from Michele Loew
Course Manual
Comprehensive Reading List
Bonus Asana Videos
Livestream Vajra Yoga with Michele Loew - Saturday 11/20
Beginning Tibetan Yoga with Michele Loew
Vajra Yoga Class w/ Michele Loew - 10/30
Nejang Practice with Michele Loew
Pranic & Apanic Patterns in Asana + The Samadhi Pada w/ Michele Loew
Week One [October 11-14]
Reading for Week One
What is Vajra Yoga? History and Evolution
What is Vajra Yoga? History and Context of Vajra Yoga & Buddhist Thought
What is Vajra Yoga? The Vajra Yoga Objective
What is Vajra Yoga? Impact of Buddhism + The Inner Revolution
Orientation, Philosophy - Q&A with Robert Thurman - Re-Play
Week Two [October 18-21]
Reading for Week Two
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: Pranic & Apanic Patterns
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: Sadhana Pada
Mahasatipatthana Sutta - Introduction
Mahasatipatthana Sutta : Breathing + Counting Meditation
Mahasatipatthana Sutta : Walking, Body Deglamourization, Sensations, Mind Objects, Vipassana vs. Not-Thinking
Mahasatipatthana Sutta : Cessation of the Craving - Integration of Sutta and Tantra
Mahasatipatthana Sutta - Mind Contact: What is Agreeable and Pleasurable
Mahasatipatthana Sutta - Mind Contact: What is Agreeable and Pleasurable Continued
Mahasatipatthana Sutta - Meditation on 5 Aggregates and 12 media
Mahasatipatthana Sutta - Contemplating Body as Body
Mahasatipatthana Sutta - Walking, Moving, Eating
Mahasatipatthana Sutta: Controlling Lust and Desire & Offensive Body Scan
Yoga Sutras, Meditation, Mahasatipatthana Sutta - Week Two Q&A with Robert Thurman
Week Two Q&A Written Responses & Suggested Study Materials by Robert Thurman
Week Three [October 25 - 28]
Reading for Week 3
Yoga Sutras - Verses 1-5 Yoga Sutras - Samadhi, Craving, Cessation and Mahasatipatthana Sutta
Yoga Sutras - Verses 1-5 Yoga Sutras - The Condition of the Experiencer in its own Clear Light
Yoga Sutras - Verses 1-5 Yoga Sutras - Awareness
Yoga Sutras - Verses 1-5 Yoga Sutras - Klishta & Aklishta
Sankhya Philosophy
The Sankhya Philosophy Paradox
Sankhya Philosophy - Dharma
Sankhya Philosophy - Everything Happens Naturally
Yoga Sutras - Sleep, Memory, Practice and Renunciation
Yoga Sutras - Mindfulness & Ultimate Remebering
Yoga Sutras - Practice & Surrender
Sammanaphala Sutta : The Fruits of Homeless Life Sutta Part One
Sammanaphala Sutta : The Fruits of Homeless Life Sutta Part Two
Four Noble Truths - The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
Four Noble Truths - Chanting the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
Four Noble Truths - The Dhammacakkappavattana Suta - The 4 Friendly Facts
Yoga Sutras, Sankhya Philosophy, Fruits of Homeless Life & Four Noble Truths Suttas Week Three Q&A with Robert Thurman
Week Four [November 8 - 11]
Reading for Week 4
Yoga Sutras : Dualism and Time Non-Dual vs Dual
Yoga Sutras : Dualism and Time Effort, Detachment & Time
Yoga Sutras : Sankhya Philosophy with Michele: Non Attachment
Yoga Sutras : Sankhya Philosophy with Michele: The Independence of Pure Awareness
Yoga Sutras : Obstacles and Liberation with Michele: Stilling, Liberation and Repetition
Yoga Sutras : Obstacles and Liberation with Michele: Obstacles and the Four Brahmaviharas
The Four Brahmaviharas with Michele
The Four Brahmaviharas : Parallels in The Yoga Sutras
The Four Brahmaviharas : Love in Evolution
The Four Brahmaviharas: Opening, Empathizing and the Skill of Helping
Flower Ornament Sutra: Bodhicitta, Noble Truths, Eight-Fold Path and the 4 Immeasurables
Access Concentration : 4 Contemplative States & Joyful Renunciation
Access Concentration : Immeasurable Love & Quantum Physics
Meditation on the Four Immeasurables with Michele
Yoga Sutras & 4 Brahma Viharas - Q&A with Robert Thurman | Replay
Week Five [November 15 - 18]
Reading for Week 5
Bhagavad Gita : Invocation to Ganesh
Bhagavad Gita : Ganesh the Scribe
Bhagavad Gita : Introduction to the Text w/ Richard and Mary
Bhagavad Gita : Impermanence, Ethical Dilemmas, Vows, Gunas
Bhagavad Gita : Sankhya, Ignorance, Lust & Anger
Bhagavad Gita : Irritation
Vipassana vs Shamata Meditation
Vipassana : About the Meditation
Shamata : About the Meditation
Shamata Meditation Preparations : Purification Breath
Shamata Meditation Preparations : Refuge Field
Shamata Meditation : Introduction
Shamata Meditation : Additional Preparations (2:07)
Shamata Meditation : Visualizing a living Buddha in front of you
The Four Keys
Bodhicitta : Meditation on the Conception of the Spirit of Enlightenment
Shunyata Karuna Garbham : Meditation on Self and Others
Heart Sutra : Chanting and Commentaries
Bhagavad Gita, 4 Bhrama Viharas, Compassion, Loving Kindness Meditations, Heart Sutra - Q&A with Robert Thurman | Re-Play
Week Six [November 29 - December 2]
Reading for Week 6
Bhagavad Gita : Gita Dhyanam
Bhagavad Gita : Meditation on the Gita Dhyanam, The Gunas in Action
Bhagavad Gita : Dharma
Sankhya, Prakriti & Parusha : Lila, Yoga and the Sankhya Paradox
Sankhya Philosophy : Agility to make a reform "concepts"
Vimalakirti Sutra : Quick Hello to the Vimalakirti
Vimalakirti Sutra : The Pure-Land-Non-Issue
Vimalakirti Sutra : The Pure-Land-Non-Issue Reading
Vimalakirti Sutra : Course Body & Vajra Body
Vimalakirti Sutra : Consolation of the invalid; Sentimental Compassion vs. Real Compassion
Vimalakirti Sutra : Speech and Nirvana
Vimalakirti Sutra : Shariputra's silence
Vimalakirti Sutra : Cognitive Dissonance
Shantideva : Bhusuku's graduation lecture at Nalanda University
Shantideva: "The Way of the Bodhisattva" : Chapter 1
Shantideva: Chapter 9 - Wisdom; Opening to non-dual experience; Relative & Absolute truth
Shantideva: Chapter 9 - Epistemology; cognizing vs. re-cognizing experience; Buddhahood
Shantideva: Chapter 9 - Conceptuality and Using Dualism
Shantideva: Chapter 9 - Reasoning & referring to “things”
Shantideva: Chapter 9 - The yogini reality & meaning of "Yoga"
Shantideva: Chapter 2 - Offerings & Wellness
Shantideva: Chapter 2 - Going for Refuge
What does it mean to Take Refuge?
Bhagavad Gita, Vimalakirti, Shanti Deva A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life - LIVE Q&A with Robert Thurman | Replay
Bonus Material : Full "Teachings of the Vimalakirti Sutra" with Tenzin Thurman
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Introduction
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Two
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Three
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Four
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Five
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Six
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Seven
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Eight
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Nine
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Ten
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Eleven
The Teachings of Vimalakirti - Session Twelve
Week Seven [January 3 - 9]
Reading for Week 7
Bhagavad Gita: Concept of pausing; Dharma (teaching), Dharma (duty); Karma, inheritance and destiny; Mindfulness; Karma as creative process
Bhagavad Gita: Practice as getting back; empty of self; attachment to the fruit of action; sacrifice = give the fruit away (ecstatic release
Bhagavad Gita: Tiers of comprehension; training to be steady and stable; wisdom sacrifice; paradox as fullness and deep understanding, visceral experience of who you are; humor; paradox (equal views) vs. orthodox (one way, my way)
Bhagavad Gita: Ashtanga Closing Chant
Shantideva: Chapter 3: Open to the Spirit of Enlightenment (Bodhicitta)
Shantideva: Chapter 3: Pros and cons of dying; giving it all away
Shantideva : Chapter 4: Carefulness, 6 Paramitas, When to take a Vow
Shantideva: Chapter 4: Field Minds; Inner Strength
Shantideva: Chapter 4: Useful Fear
Shantideva: Chapter 4: Preciousness of human life; being here now is evolutionarily skillful
Shantideva: Chapter 4: Overly glamorizing the first noble truth; being a slave to anger and lust; overcoming afflictions
Shantideva: Chapter 4: Essence of Tantra
Danger of Cults; Value of Monastic Sangha vs. Protestant Thinking
Shantideva: Chapter 5: Vigilant Introspection; the ego habit; internal conquest
Shantideva: Chapter 5: Binding the mind, examples throughout history
Shantideva: Chapter 5: Mindfulness and the Importance of willingness in performing skillfully; the ignorant mind as a wound
Shantideva: Chapter 5: Introspection includes mindfulness, yet goes deeper
Shantideva: Chapter 5: Etiquette & Behavioral Conditioning
Shantideva: Chapter 5, verse 94: How to skillfully indicate directions
Being the goldsmith of your own critical insight - doctrine vs. teaching
Three Principles of the Path: Intro; The liberty and opportunity of the human embodiment
Three Principles of the Path: Seek transcendent renunciation; in light of the immediacy of death; it is now or never
Three Principles of the Path: Bodhicitta mind as prerequisite for supreme bliss, mother-recognition
Three Principles of the Path : Relativity as prerequisite for cutting the root of the Cyclic Life
Three Principles of the Path: Four Verses as preliminaries for Tantra
Bhagavad Gita Studies : The best compost for our soil of Consciousness
Bhagavad Gita Studies : Being able to see both sides in everything
Bhagavad Gita Studies : How to Apply these Teachings
Bhagavad Gita Studies : When you don't know what to do...
Being the Creator of Meaning
Sankhya Philosophy : Prakriti and Purusha as female and male disentangled - the usefulness of dualism
Sankhya Philosophy : Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18, verse 62 Samsara, reading all of time as just pure destruction, vs design of vows
Sankhya Philosophy : The subliminal resentment against the omnipotent creator; having the power to save yourself
Yoga, Kundalini and the Power for Opening the Sensitivity and Radiating Bliss
Shantideva: Chapter 8: Verse 98; everything is changing
Bhagavad Gita, Comparative Buddhist studies, Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life - LIVE Q&A with Robert Thurman | Re-Play
Week Eight [January 10 - 16]
Reading for Week 8
Bhagavad Gita, Comparative Buddhist studies, Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life - LIVE Q&A with Robert Thurman | Re-Play
Bhagavad Gita: deliberate slowing down; things coming down from the theistic pedestals; compassion and Bodhisattva elements; interconnectedness
Bhagavad Gita: I am the taste of water; wrapping direct experience with labels
Bhagavad Gita: Bhakti, Atman; seeing other beings clearly, where you recognize them (13:08)
Bhagavad Gita: universal form; infinity in every aspect; seeing time; intriguing impermanence
Bhagavad Gita : Link between sacrifice of sacrifice and Bhakti; Give up all Dharmas as they are scaffolding to point out the inexpressible; trust
Comparative Buddhist Philosophy : sacrifice vs renunciation
Comparative Buddhist Philosophy : “When Love Comes to Light": The Gita and Vishnu's presumed monotheism non-dually re-visited as pantheistic heresy where God invites you to “be me” in a mainstream text
Comparative Buddhist Philosophy : Meditation on Your Nose; "no intrinsically real nose" - it disappears under analysis
Comparative Buddhist Philosophy : Three levels of subtlety
Comparative Buddhist Philosophy : Neither conscious-nor-unconscious, nor seeming nothingness, nor infinite consciousness, nor infinite space being the real thing; the royal reason of relativity saving you from becoming a Komodo dragon
Intrinsicity Meditation: The thingness of things, Plato; Physics and Meta-physics
Intrinsicity Meditation - Ontology; Intrinsic Reality, Objectivity and Identity
Intrinsiticity Meditation : The cup screams "cup", A screams "A"; When does it stop screaming?;
Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika: Introduction
Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika : Relativity, dependent origination emptiness of nothingness the Buddhist critique of pure reason
Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika : Meditation on uncreatedness
Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika : Meditation on uncreatedness cont'd: Uncausation; illusoriness of everything
Nagarjuna's Meditation on uncreatedness cont'd : Action, agency, condition and the primal cause of suffering
Nagarjuna's Meditation on uncreatedness cont'd: When the going gets tough...
Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika : Why we are so tired at the end of the day
Shantideva: Chapter 6: Patience - becoming invulnerable to hatred; using pain positively (10:24)
Shantideva: Chapter 6: Patience - reality awareness - Looking into “What caused this injury?”
Shantideva: Chapter 6: Patience of Forgiveness, non-retaliation; “even if they kill us, we will die happy”
Shantideva: Chapter 8: Mediation; Compassion through the sameness of self and other
Shantideva: Chapter 8: Mediation; Dealing with one’s own pain and the pain of the others
Shantideva: Chapter 8: Suffering has no possessor; empathy, mirror neurons and the good doctor
Shantideva: Chapter 8: Freedom of infinite relationships; “Buddhas have more fun” vs. Romeo and Juliet
Shantideva: Chapter 8: Just lay aside all Self-Cherishing vs. Self-Loathing; Identifying with Everybody
Shantideva: Chapter 8: Evolutionary Skillful and Unskillful Consequences - Connecting Self Promotion / Self Progress with Altruism; “Be a wise a selfish” and “If you want to be happy, don’t seek your own happiness”
Shantideva: Chapter 8: The Practice - take others, lower, higher, equal, as yourself… and notice your comparing and judging habit, then exchange position with the other
Shantideva Chapter 8, Verses 141-154: Being jealous of the higher one, shooting gurus, killing Buddhas; Competing; Contempt
Shantideva Chapter 8: “Why am I not jealous of myself?”; “Maybe I did it”
Shantideva Chapter 8: Accept others hurting your ego
Shantideva Chapter 8: De-Overly-Cherishing the Body; “Alive or dead - what difference does it make?”
Shantideva Chapter 8: The Gist of Lojong: Our Heroic Self Adopting the Bodhisattva Mind as the First Grain of Inconceivability: Inconceivable, impossible, that’s what we do
Week Nine [February 7 - 13]
Tibetan Book of the Dead, Intro to Tantra, Deity Yoga, Subtle Body - LIVE Q&A with Robert Thurman Friday, February 11th | Re-Play
Reading for Week 9
Your next life - an impulse buy?
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Introduction; the real title; the between
The Book of the Dead: Introduction cont'd - basic ideas; history; target audience
Intro to Tantra : Theravada is Tantra; HHDL : Sutra before Tantra
Intro to Tantra : Guided meditation on the Mahayana Path
Intro to Tantra : Tantra and Mahayana
Intro to Tantra : Tantra recreates the universe
Intro to Tantra : Tantra as Co-creation
Intro to Tantra : Vijnana Bhairava Tantra
Intro to Tantra : The 3 Yanas or Buddhist schools of thought
Intro to Tantra : Awakening / Enlightenment Buddha’s Enlightenment [Esoteric & Exoteric Versions] Mandala & Deities Importance of Shamatha / Vipassana / Bodhisatva vows in Tantra
Intro to Tantra : Mandala Offering
Intro to Tantra : Deity Yoga in Tantra; Guhyasamaja Mandala
Intro to Tantra : Guhyasamaja Tantra The Esoteric Commentary Tantra Reading
Intro to Tantra : Richard Freeman & Tenzin Thurman in conversation : Yoga Travail verses 1-10
Deity Yoga : Reading from Tantric Techniques - Jeffrey Hopkins; Meditation in Sutra and Tantra Tantra and Dzogchen
Deity Yoga : Avalokitesvara Simhanada Sadhana Story of Shiva and Sati
Deity Yoga : Avalokitesvara Sadhana from HHDL teachings
Deity Yoga : Avalokitesvara Sadhana from Kriya Yoga Tantra
Deity Yoga : Tantric Techniques by Jeffrey Hopkins
Deity Yoga : Tantric Techniques by Jeffrey Hopkins [contd]
Subtle Body: Subtle Body and Subtle Mind
Subtle Body : Asana to connect to your subtle body; wisdom as a prerequisite
Subtle Body : Subtle Body and the Individual Vehicle
Subtle Body : Meditation on the mental sense faculty and the subtle body
Week Ten [February 14 - 20]
Tibetan Book of the Dead, Dzogchen, Unexcelled Yoga Tantra, Creation and Perfection Stages - LIVE Q&A with Robert Thurman [12-1:30 PM EST Thursday, February 17]
Reading for Week 10
The Book of the Dead: the root verses; the death point between; importance of reaching out as a yogi
The Book of the Dead: The Prayer for Help From The Buddhas And Bodhisattvas
The Book of the Dead : The Guidebook to the Betweens
The Book of the Dead: Cultivating openness; giving oneself away
The Book of the Dead: Stages of dissolution
The Book of the Dead: Stages of dissolution cont'd: the subtle mind; instinctual surges
The Book of the Dead: The betweens; not fearing your own visions go for the bright light
The Book of the Dead: Orientation to the Existence Between; powers and problems as a between-being
The Book of the Dead: incorporating the clearlight into your experience
The Book of the Dead: The Power of Visualization
Dzogchen: The Great Connection with Tsultrim Allione
Dzogchen : The Great Connection and the Barking Dog
Dzogchen: The Great Connection of Wisdom and Compassion
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL: About empowerment
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: ritual objects, mantras, entering a new family, mediumism, good teachers
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: Samadhi
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: primordial purity; two levels of reality; mind
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: ordinary mind and pure awareness; concepts, knowing and wisdom
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: when your brain becomes the Universe
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: the fundamental innate mind of clearlight; using concepts to freeing yourself of concepts
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: yogas; concepts permeated by direct experiential awareness
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: phat! rigpa - tantric awareness; PHAT! Dharmakaya - reality embodied
Dzogchen: Teaching of HHDL cont'd: Confidence, Buddha pride; gatey, gatey...; exploding into emanation bodies
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra : Short List of Unexcelled Yoga Tantras
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra : Transformation of the 3 Kayas
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra: Into the Infinite Now with the Greatest Efficacy
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra: What is it with the "unexcelled"?
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra: The Non-Duality of Unexcelled Yoga Tantras; Mother and Father Tantras
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra : Introducing the Kalachakra Mandala
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra : Kalachakra Mandala Continued
Uexcelled Yoga Tantra : The Kalachakra Mandala cont'd: "You can get a glass of wine, but you won't get a bottle."
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra : The Kalachakra Mandala cont'd: no attainment and no non-attainment; Dzogchen; "Alright already"
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra : The Kalachakra Mandala cont'd: In the Middle - everywhere and everywhen
Creation and Perfection Stages: Creation Stage, Creative Meditation
Creation and Perfection Stages : Jump into the Perfection Stage? Taking Back Projections and Your Murky Interior
Creation and Perfection Stages: definitive meaning vs. interpretable meaning in creation and perfection stages
Creation and Perfection Stages: the breath as the mantra; mandala and evolutionary triumphs
Creation and Perfection Stages: Revelation of superficial reality
Creation and Perfection Stages: The Clearlight Stage; the Magic Body
Creation and Perfection Stages: Communion
Creation and Perfection Stages: Coming to terms with ‚Communion‘
Creation and Perfection Stages: Time and Communion - retroactively enjoying being here and at the same time inhabiting what is actually the case
Creation and Perfection Stages : Linguistic meaning, common, hidden and ultimate
Creation and Perfection Stages : Achieving body isolation, speech isolation and mind isolation upon entering the perfection stage and a happy ending for the Universe
Week Eleven [February 17 - February 24]
Closing Q&A with Robert Thurman [12-1:30 PM EST Thursday, February 24]
Bonus Materials Fons Vitae Keynote
Thomas Merton & Hinduism with Robert Thurman
Learn More & Connect
Related Audio Teachings
Creation and Perfection Stages: the breath as the mantra; mandala and evolutionary triumphs
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