An ANGEL
DEBATES
THE DEVIL
In person & Online event
July 26-28, 2024
Mexico
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE GOOD AND EVIL
THAT HAPPENS IN OUR MIND
An ANGEL
DEBATES
THE DEVIL
Geshe Michael Roach will be offering a very special teaching on meditation and the inner workings of our mind in Mexico City, July 26-28. These teachings are called An Angel Debates The Devil, a dialogue between the good and evil that happens in our own mind. The text is at the same time extremely funny and extremely deep, as it reveals the tricky ways that our mind deceives us into believing we are thinking and acting in a way that actually helps us. In reality, our mind too often is leading us astray. This teaching will help us to unravel the seductive arguments of the Devil in our own mind in order to be successful in this life, and to learn how to develop the skills necessary to confront any obstacle.The traditional name of our text is An Argument with the Tendency to Think that Things are Real. It was written by Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen, who lived 1565-1662. He was above all an extraordinary practitioner, thinker, and contemplator; a yogi; a poet and writer among the greatest who have ever lived; and an ardent pacifist who once stopped a war single-handedly, by walking out between the opposing armies.What's amazing is that–as we listen to the devil and the angel debating—we unexpectedly begin to get some new ideas about how the world around us works: why things happen to us the way they do, why we meet the people we do. By the end of the fight, we have a lot of what we need to know to change our own life—to be happier, and make those around us happy.Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen
Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen, the first Panchen Lama, was an incredible being. From an early age he studied and practiced diligently, and readily succeeded in meeting holy beings face to face, as described in the first poem in our selection, The Lady Who Came to Me, composed at the tender age of 14 years old.He lived in a time of war and strife when people generally only lived to 50 years, yet he himself lived to be almost 100. Geshe Potowa's biography describes him with the lines: "In Tibet there is a certain monk whose life story is enough to express the life stories of thousands of normal monks."And "The fame [drak] of this holy being extends even to India." And as Master Tsechok Ling states in the Brief Biography: "This one monk, in a certain number of years, would surpass thousands upon thousands of other monks—he would set his single-pointed attention fiercely upon attaining the state of omniscience, and in this extraordinary aspiration his single life would embody the efforts of thousands of other people's lives."
Friday 26th: Open Talk
Saturday 27th: Day 1
Sunday 28th: Day 2
SCHEDULE
Barceló Hotel Mexico City.
Address: to be confirmed