Visiting Teacher - Chuck Damov
Chuck Damov studied with many Tibetan masters while undertaking intensive Buddhist learning and retreats in India / Nepal for four years before settling in Vancouver, B.C. There he became a senior student in Lama Zasep Rinpoche's Zuru Ling Buddhist meditation centre. He has completed a 7 year program of Buddhist studies and for 5 years taught an introductory course in Buddhism at the college level. He has experience with both Sutra and Tantric Buddhism in his study and personal retreats which has allowed him to develop into the wonderful teacher he is today. His teaching style is gentle, thoughtful and interactive and lends itself to relating to students at their own level of understanding. At the request of his lama, Zasep Rinpoche Bagsh-aa, Chuck has been teaching at various Dharma centers in North America for the last 12 years.
Chuck has often visited Gaden Choling, and his depth of knowledge and experience in the Buddhadharma has made him an invaluable resource for students to increase and deepen their intellectual understanding of the grounds and paths of Buddhist practice here in Toronto. Furthermore, Chuck's special contribution to our sangha has been in supporting the development of a healthy and sustained meditation practice in students, an amazing contribution that comes out of his own ongoing retreat experience.
Present and Past Classes Taught at Gaden Choling
- Waking, Dreaming and Dying: A Tibetan Buddhist View - Feb 19-21, 2010
- A weekend of study and meditation on the views, insights & practices of living and dying according to Tibetan Buddhism.
- The Buddhist Path of Ethics, Concentration and Wisdom - January to March 2010
- A course exploring the three principal paths of Buddhist liberation and enlightenment in both theory, meditation and everyday life.
- Lama Chopa/Guru Puja (Offering to the Spiritual Guide) - 12 class course - Winter 2008
- An exploration of this core practice of our Geluk Tradition, with special focus on the extensive prayers for the realization of the various stages and paths of Lamrim.
- Shamata Mahamudra - 8 class course - Autumn 2008
- How to develop meditative concentration, drawing on material from the mahamudra lineage.
- Three Principal Aspects of the Path - 8 class course - Autumn 2008
- The three basic elements comprising the entire path to enlightenment (renunciation, bodhicitta and profound view).