Join Dr. B Alan Wallace & Dr. Eva Natanya for a six-day virtual retreat in which they explore the deep parallels in practice and theory between the Buddhist and Christian contemplative traditions.
About This Course
In this six-day virtual retreat, recorded in 2020, the world-renowned Buddhist teacher, Dr. B. Alan Wallace, will dialogue with Dr. Eva Natanya, an experienced meditator and scholar of both Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity, to explore the deep parallels in practice and theory that may be found in these two ancient contemplative traditions.
They each lead numerous guided meditations, teaching details of meditation technique that are indispensable to developing a clear and stable practice, whichever tradition of prayer or meditation one may follow.
They also explain the meaning of each practice within their respective contexts: how stillness meditation, or shamatha, fits within the full scope of the Buddhist path of Dzogchen, or the Great Perfection, and how the Christian practice of hesychasm, or silent stillness, becomes a mystical path to contemplative union with the mind of Christ.
Thus, participants are invited to an experiential practice of interreligious dialogue, in which we take seriously the points of apparent contradiction, but also cut through to a perspective from which even irreconcilable differences might make sense within a greater encompassment.
Course Format
Each day consists of three sessions, totalling 5½ hours:
In each morning 2-hour session, Lama Alan introduces and guides a meditation, followed by an explanation from the Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen tradition, and comparative discussion with Dr. Eva Natanya.
In each afternoon 2-hour session, Dr. Natanya leads a meditation in Christian terms, followed by an explanation from the Christian Hesychast tradition, and further dialogue with Lama Alan.
In the evening 1.5-hour session, Lama Alan leads a meditation, followed by an opportunity for both teachers to respond to questions that were posed as this event took place live in 2020.
What's Included
- Lifetime access to the course
- Six days of teaching & dialogue with Dr Alan Wallace & Dr Eva Natanya (36 hours of video)
- Detailed outlines and quotes from both speakers
- Guided meditations & meditation techniques indispensable to developing a clear and stable practice.
- How the meditation of stillness, or shamatha, fits within the full scope of the Buddhist path of Dzogchen, or the Great Perfection
- How the Christian practice of hesychasm, or silent stillness, becomes a mystical path to contemplative union with the mind of Christ.
- An experiential practice of interreligious dialogue
The Teachers
B. Alan Wallace is one of the world’s leading scholars, writers, and teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, and an outspoken advocate for a revolution in the mind sciences, one that will replace the current paradigm of materialist reductionism with a new paradigm based on contemplative methods of inquiry into the nature and potentials of the mind.
With more than 40 years of formal studies in the Indo-Tibetan tradition (including 14 years as a monastic) and prestigious degrees from Amherst College and Stanford, he is uniquely qualified to bridge the gap between modern science and the time-tested approaches to contemplative practice preserved by multiple lineages. A student of the Dalai Lama and many other renowned teachers, he authored and translated more than 40 books on the philosophy of consciousness, Tibetan Buddhism and applied contemplative practice.
Detailed biography: https://www.alanwallace.org/about-alan-wallace/
Books by B. Alan Wallace: https://www.alanwallace.org/writings/books/
Dr. Eva Natanya is a scholar of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, an academic lecturer, writer, translator, and retreat leader.
Following a nine-year career as a professional ballet dancer with both the New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet of England, she earned an MA in Christian Systematic Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia.
For over twenty years, she has studied meditation, yoga, and philosophy in both the Christian and Buddhist traditions with master teachers in the United States, England, and India.
She is the Executive Director and Resident Teacher of The Center for Contemplative Research. A scholar of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, Christian theology, and comparative religion, Dr. Natanya has served in many capacities as a spiritual teacher, academic lecturer, translator and editor of Tibetan texts, writer, and retreat leader.
Other Languages
This retreat is also available in Spanish.
