Conditioning and Transformation: Thirty Verses on Consciousness

Instructor(s): Mu Soeng

Program Description:

The text “Thirty Verses on Consciousness” is one of the great psychological and spiritual maps in early Indian Mahayana Buddhism. It is one the foundational texts of the Yogachara school and is attributed to Vasubandu (ca. 4th century CE) one of the most celebrated teachers of Indian Buddhism. This text lays out a map of what may be called a Buddhist theory of the Unconscious, and thus speaks closely to the notions of ripening of karmic seeds and liberation processes. This text remains surprisingly vital to our contemporary understanding of Buddhist psychology both of the conditioned mind and the unconditioned. In this program, we will use this text to understand our own conditioning processes, and also investigate how it may impact our meditation practice in transformative ways.

About the Instructor(s):
• 

  Mu Soeng

  Mu Soeng is Scholar Emeritus at BCBS. He trained in the (Korean) Zen tradition and was a monk for eleven years. He is the author of Thousand Peaks: Korean Zen (Tradition and Teachers); The Diamond Sutra: Transforming the Way We Perceive the World; Trust in Mind: The Rebellion of Chinese Zen; The Heart of the Universe: Exploring the Heart Sutra, and co-author of Older and Wiser: Classical Buddhist Teachings on Aging, Sickness, and Death.