Gesture of Great Love

Description

There is a global shortage of joy, inner peace, and the kind of deep caring for self and others

that heals the heart and inspires creative action. How sad this is! For at the very heart of being is the open instant, a boundless source of Great Love.

Tarthang Tulku, Gesture of Great Love, Light of Liberation

Come join us for a series of four 7-week courses as we study and practice Gesture of Great Love: Light of Liberation, the newest teachings presented by Tibetan Lama Tarthang Tulku. The ideas he offers here first emerged some fifty years ago, taking shape as the Time, Space, and Knowledge vision. Through guided exercises and clear, accessible language, these transformative teachings penetrate heart and mind to uncover the depths of our being.

As we face suffering honestly, cultivate emotional well-being, and actively inquire into the nature of identity, language, and time, we find we have a key to a new way of being. When the day becomes rich with joy and appreciation, emotions lighten, life-situations become easier to deal with, and we begin to dance creatively with whatever arises. 

Format

Classes meet online for seven weeks, 1.5 hours a week. Classes are recorded and accessible for six months. Each week features short presentations, experiential exercises, and discussion. Weekly handouts provide inspirational passages along with the instructions you need to continue your experiential learning at home. An online community portal gives you the option to meet and be in dialogue with your fellow students.

Weekly Topics 

Week 1: Introduction

This first week introduces the different vision of Gesture of Great Love. Why do we go along with life mechanisms that cause us so much unhappiness? This book presents a way that transforms the ordinary and celebrates whatever arises (Intro p. xvi).

Week 2:  A new way of understanding

3 approaches are introduced that help us learn to offer ourselves hugs and kisses, dwell in the instant, and embrace the silent heart of being that is our birthright (Intro pp.viii-xix).

Week 3:  Our current situation—through caring eyes

Taking an honest look – with caring eyes –  at global and personal patterns that enforce suffering. When misunderstanding clears, we can transform ignorance into wisdom (Ch.p. 1ff)

Week 4:  Contemplating personal and larger patterns. Radical transformation

Reflections on historic and individual histories, patterns micro and global, expose a hidden, sometimes toxic “contract with mind.” Through  contemplation, “silent negotiation with mind” we might follow different rhythms, different ways (Ch. 1 pp. 5-6).

Week 5:  Opening an Impoverished World: Where Beauty and Joy Reside

Perhaps much of the time the heart seems semi-closed, with body and breath tense to various degrees. Cultivating the ability to see, hear, and connect – opening the sensing part of sensing, where beauty and joy reside. (Ch. 2 p. 13)

Week 6:  Appreciation and Joy

Positive feelings are fully available here and now (Ch. 2 p. 18). Learning to appreciate each moment, we discover what is fresh and interesting, and we shift indifference into appreciation.

Week 7:

Body, Language and Mind are the vehicles through which we communicate with ourselves and the world. We explore what opens mind, strengthens healthy experience, and supports ‘knowledge-ability’ – new insights and better understanding (Ch. 3 pp. 24-5).

Readings from 

Gesture of Great Love by Tarthang Tulku 

Instructor