TLC Transitional Life Care
A Vajrayana Buddhist education and support program offering spiritual resources for the end of life transition.
BEDSIDE SLOGANS
Present at Bedside - The Wisdom of Vimalakirti
On December 2, 2023 TLC was honored to host Judith Simmer-Brown Ph.D., who taught "Present at the Bedside-The Wisdom of Vimalakirti". This profound and practical Buddhist teaching was inspired by chapter five of the Buddhist Master Vimalakirti's mahayana scripture, 'The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti', translated by Robert Thurman. For two thousand years this sūtra, referred to as the “jewel of the Mahāyāna Sūtras,” has been revered among Buddhists in India, central and southeast Asia, Japan, China, and later, in Tibet.
Ms. Simmer-Brown has generously allowed TLC to post and feature the PowerPoint presentation slides that she shared during that program, the first time she has shared them publicly. Her intention for creating these contemporary Buddhist slogans is to provide an instructional tool for the education of chaplains and anyone caring for those who are ill and/or dying. The art included also relates to Vimalakirti's teachings that embrace illness and death as a path of practice. For a deeper understanding, and to hear her teachings regarding these slides, TLC will post the video of the event at some point during 2024 on our TLC Rental Videos page.
Judith Simmer-Brown, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Contemplative and Religious Studies Emeritus at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, where she has taught since 1978. A Buddhist practitioner since the early 1970’s, she became a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1974, and served as an acharya in Shambhala from 2000-2022. Her teaching specialties are meditation practice, Buddhist philosophy, tantric Buddhism, Buddhist chaplaincy, and contemplative higher education. Her book, Dakini’s Warm Breath (Shambhala 2001), explores the feminine principle as it reveals itself in meditation practice and everyday life for women and men.
