INDIANA BUDDHIST CENTER

For eight years, starting in 2006, Geshe Jinpa Sonam gave weekly teachings based on the book Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, A Concise Discourse on the Path to Enlightenment, by Pabongka Rinpoche.

In 1921, some seven hundred Tibetan monks, nuns, and lay people gathered at Chuzang Hermitage, near Lhasa, to receive a series of discourses from the renowned teacher, Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche. For twenty-four days they listened to what has become one of the most famous teachings ever given in Tibet, captured as the text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

The term Lamrim (steps on the path to enlightenment) refers to a group of teachings that have developed in Tibet over the past millennium based on A Lamp on the Path, by the great Indian master Atisha. In some ways, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand represents the culmination of the lamrim tradition in Tibet.

The importance of lamrim is that it puts the Buddha's teachings into logical order, delineating a step-by-step arrangement that can be understood and practiced by whoever wants to follow the Buddhist path, irrespective of his or her level of development.