Pithy Practices: Training the Mind through Lojong & Tonglen [HYBRID]

7 Thursdays, online via zoom: Oct 24 & 31, Nov 7, 14 & 21, Dec 5 & 12, 7-9 pm
Half-day retreat, in person & online: Oct 26, 9am-1pm

The slogans have been helpful advice for getting beyond ourselves and progressing on the path for hundreds of years. As they become integrated in one's life,  every experience can be illuminating and we find on-the-spot instruction in each moment.

Please join us for a 7-week course on the lojong, or mind-training, slogans. These pithy practice instructions have served as a foundation for Mahayana practice in many lineage streams of Tibetan Buddhism. Among other things, they invite us to “always maintain a joyful mind” and to “abandon any hope of fruition.”  According to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche,

The few lists [of slogans] are very simple ones, nothing particularly philosophical. It is purely what one of the great Kagyü teachers regarded as a "grandmother's fingerpoint." When a grandmother says, "This is the place where I used to go and pick corn, collect wild vegetables," she usually uses her finger rather than writing on paper or using a map. So it is a grandmother's approach at this point.

Our course will be based on commentary from Chogyam Trungpa’s book Training the Mind, as well as commentaries on the slogans by several other masters from the Kagyü and Nyingma lineages. The course is for students who have established a regular meditation practice and are inspired to explore how one’s personal practice can become a foundation for helping others.

Our schedule includes a half-day retreat on October 26th, which will provide an introduction to tonglen — an important complement to slogan practice —  in  the context of the sitting practice of shamatha-vipashyana.

Readings for the course will be from Training the Mind & Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chögyam Trungpa

Registration: Please register with an email you check regularly. If our registrations system does not have a current email for you, you will miss important information about the program.

You should receive the first confirmation email within within 24 hours of registration. You should receive a second confirmation email with more program details approximately 1 week before the program begins. Sometimes emails may end up in your promotions, spam or junk folder. It’s also possible that you’ve unsubscribed from emails from Shambhala, which prevents you from receiving the necessary emails. If you don't receive the first email, please contact [email protected].

Price: Please see our pricing policy page for information about tiered pricing, MyPrice, cancellations and more. 

Payment: We use Paypal to process payments. You can choose to pay through a paypal account (if you have one) or with a credit or debit card. Unfortunately Paypal sometimes disables guest checkout "based on several risk factors" and will prompt you to create an account. If you run into this issue, please email [email protected] to let us know. We hope to find a better solution soon.

Zoom participation: As with any contemplative practice, your environment impacts your experience. For those wishing to join virtually, we strongly suggest you find a space to join the program that is relatively quiet and free of distractions. Zoom meeting info will be provided to registrants approximately 1 week before the program starts.

FAQ: Common questions might be answered on our FAQ page.