A Whole-Life Path Self-Study Series

Ten Weeks of Crafting a Dhamma-Infused Life

One thing has come into sharp relief during this pandemic: every moment of life is a part of our spiritual path. We are confronted with an exceptional onslaught of suffering and insecurities. More than ever we see the importance of spiritual friendships and community. We are being pointed towards a search for wise ways of living and compassionate ways of responding. There’s an opportunity for genuine change.

From the moment of birth, each action, each mind moment has conditioned the next. That’s just a fact. So what moment could possibly not matter when it comes to meeting the deepest suffering and the finest joy? No moment, relationship, or experience is left out of this path: it is a whole life affair.

This was a series of talks offered by Gregory Kramer that explored a whole-life vision of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. Gregory Kramer has been developing and sharing this vision for decades. A way of seeing has emerged that encompasses all of our relationships and our responsibility to environmental and social justice. The Buddha’s wisdom is also applied to our lives in not only how we earn money, but spending and investing it as well. This path speaks to how we relate to technology and media, the arts, psychotherapy, and other facets of our modern lives. It’s about how we treat people, what we say, and how we think. In all of these areas, we will ask, “How can the Buddha’s teachings provide relevant, compelling guidance, right now? With nothing left out?”

The talks were held ten Sundays that introduced the Buddhist path and moved through each of the eight path factors and investigate individual, relational, and social guidance for human goodness and liberation. Taking time to explore how the path factors are operating in your life, you’ll be able to craft a version of your whole-life path.

Two additional sessions were offered each week for people who feel zeal about the Dhamma and want to go deeper.  (To get the most out of these sessions, it is necessary to have heard the Sunday talks, real-time or recorded.)

• On Tuesdays, a twenty-minute talk followed by twenty-minute discussions that further unpacked each path factor and introduce specific life practices and contemplations for you and your community or practice partners.
• On Thursdays, another talk was offered that goes into depth on specific teachings related to that week’s path factor.

Topic for each week:

• Week 1: Purpose of path; the six tenets; what is “right”
• Week 2: Right view: Everything depends on how we see the world: how do we practice to radically shift perspective?
• Week 3: Right Intention: How the mind is aimed in moments and in the arc of life; the exceptional power of shared intention
• Week 4: Right Speech: The power of language; communication; expression and consumption of art and media
• Week 5: Right action: Causal factors that connect individual, interpersonal, and social suffering and liberation. Social responsibility aligned with an early Buddhist perspective.
• Week 6: Right Livelihood: Mental imprinting at work; wise use of requisites for the lay life; money; ecology and resource use
• Week 7: Right Effort: Out with the bad, in with the good; the role of psychotherapy
• Week 8: Right Mindfulness: Essential to every path factor; why relational mindfulness accelerates and amplifies meditative qualities
• Week 9: Right Samadhi: A liberating factor; often misunderstood as “concentration”; multi-faceted; rooted in happiness
• Week 10: Crafting a path for real. You can do this!

What is offered in this series is part of Gregory’s new book, A Whole-Life Path: A Lay Buddhist’s Guide to Crafting a Dhamma-Infused Life.