Start your spiritual learning

• Language: English & Chinese
• Prerequisites: Buddhism for Beginners ( >75% attendance)
• Duration: 1 year

• Schedule:

  • Wednesday (new term starts January 2024)
  • 8.30 pm – 10.30 pm
  • Google Meet
• Core text: Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongka Rinpoche

• Members: Free
• Non-members: RM50 per month

• History, lineage, preliminaries
• Lamrim preparatory practices, prayers, visualisations
• Foundations of practice: Guru devotion and benefits of human rebirth
• Small Scope: Advantages of practising, contemplating mortality, lower realms, karma

Lamrim is a Tibetan word meaning ‘Stages of the Path’. It refers not to simply one text but a set of scriptures of the same genre, which encompass the entire central body of Buddhist practice.

Buddhism as taught by the historical Buddha over 2,500 years ago is all about self-transformation. It is about becoming a better person who is in control over your own happiness. It is about taking control of your ultimate destiny. This ultimate destiny is about achieving ‘enlightenment’ which is a word many of us may not fully understand yet; and it is also about the smaller everyday transformations on the journey to enlightenment.

The Lamrim scriptures arose from the elucidations of Buddha’s teachings by great masters of the past, compiled into a graduated path that provides clear, step-by-step advice on how to progress from our current state of mind marked by suffering to the state of true happiness. They set out the path of practice from the most basic to the most advanced stages for a practitioner to achieve the highest level in Buddhism – the exalted state of an enlightened being, also known as a Buddha. This is something that all Buddhists aspire to achieve.

To practise the Buddhist path is to become more compassionate to ourselves, our loved ones and others — day by day. When we study and practise the Lamrim, we will develop the qualities of kindness, generosity, honesty, patience, wisdom and virtue.

When we cultivate these qualities, we will find ourselves better equipped with the tools we need to engage in daily life, sheltered against the raging storm of our karma which seeks to knock us off-kilter at every turn. In this way, the Lamrim helps us overcome our self-created suffering and transform our lives in ways that we may have never thought possible.

Through the practice of Lamrim, we will also find our relationships with our partners, family, friends and colleagues transforming for the better too. All this arises from the development of our mind, through the use of meditation. This is why Buddha’s teachings are so revolutionary.

The Lamrim however is extra special compared to other teachings. This is because you do not need to study the Lamrim scriptures for years and years before you are able to practise meditation and gain spiritual realisations. With the Lamrim, you can practise and gain realisations as you study.