8 Weeks on Zoom Beginning September 23rd, from 7:00-8:30pm

We live in our minds. When the mind is quiet it is like a still lake, revealing what lies below the surface, hidden in its depths. A simple shift in focus exposes the vast expanse of the sky’s reflection scintillating upon the water’s mirror-like face. Above and below, the heights and the depths are an open book to a mind at rest within itself.

For most of us such a tranquil mind is a wished-for ideal. Perhaps we have moments when the inner chatter shuts up, the clouds of confusion part, and the winds of hatred and attachment die down. Unfortunately, those moments do not last and we are thrust right back into anger and anxiety, toxic patterns of behavior, and dysfunctional habits. What to do?

In the words of buddhist teacher James Low: we suffer because “we see the world in terms of self and others.” He calls this dualistic consciousness, “karmic vision,” which is caused by the denial of the all-encompassing, “unborn and ungraspable nature of our own mind.”

In the book, Easy Does It, James, in his inviting and unassuming way, applies the professional know-how of a psychotherapist with the compassionate wisdom and power of a lineage holder of the Great Perfection teachings (Dzogchen) of Tibetan Buddhism, to cut through the mind’s illusions. He offers clear, embodied, everyday, “boots on the ground” instruction on how to shift our perspective from the story-telling ego, with all of its “conceptual elaboration,” to the clear and open spacious awareness that is naturally liberated in every moment. We will learn how to be at ease and deeply relax into whatever presents itself in the present moment, knowing that despite appearances we are always at Home as the luminous ground, at the heart of all that arises.

James Low is a disciple and teacher in the Byangter and Khordong lineages of the late Chhimed Rigdzin Lama.

He began studying and practising Tibetan Buddhism in India in the 1960’s. Having met his root teacher, Chhimed Rigdzin Lama (also known as C R Lama), he lived in his home in West Bengal, India for many years, serving him as required and being taught many aspects of the tradition.

C R Lama asked James to teach in 1976 and later gave him the transmissions necessary to do this, together with full lineage authority. In particular, James was encouraged to give the traditional instructions using methods that enable people in the west to get the point. James has been teaching in this way for over twenty years.

James studied at Edinburgh and other universities and has retired from his work in London as a Consultant Psychotherapist in the National Health Service.