ACI 14
Lojong,
Developing
the Good Heart
with
Tim Lowenhaupt
online course
April 28 – June 2, 2025
Learn to master your own heart, and develop pragmatic and profound practices in deep love for others, based in the intelligence of ancient wisdom.
ACI 14
Lojong, Developing the Good Heart
ACI 14—Lojong, Developing the Good Heart—is one of the most beloved of the Asian Classics Institute 18 Foundation Courses.
Lojong is all about love—how to feel it, how to use it, and how to rejoice in its results, and Lojong teaches us that other living beings are essential for us to practice and learn about love; they are more precious to us than a wish-fulfilling gem. So when we practice lojong, we come to see that even the most irritating person in our life is more valuable than a goldmine, because they enable us to work on perfecting our virtue, resist our negative tendencies and plant exceptionally good karma in the process. Those people in our world, especially really irritating people in particular, motivate us to apply emptiness in its highest form: seeing that everything that comes “to us” is a perfect reflection of how we have treated other beings in the past. For many generations, access to lojong—whose teachings are designed to foster a mind and heart of compassion—was only available to a select few people. Why? For a practitioner of lojong, while on the surface it is about love and compassion, this practice can be overwhelming, and even great fear and doubt can arise when you consider that you have the personal responsibility to not only care for the sufferings of others, but also to reflect on how that suffering is coming from your past deeds. More so, the practice asks you to begin to reflect on all the ways that you yourself resist or block others from love and care, focusing, incorrectly, first and foremost on yourself and your own needs.While, of course, we must care for our own needs too to be able to serve others well, lojong teaches us to take the loss in any situation, and give the advantage to others without feelings of regret or resentment. It teaches us a deeper perfection of sharing, finding ways to give everything with joy and wisdom. Mastering these teachings ultimately will bring us results beyond all imagining.
This course presents classical advices on how to be a good person, and is based upon A Compendium of Texts on Developing the Good Heart (Lojong Gyatsa) by Muchen Konchok Gyeltsen (~1300 CE). Lojong texts from the Compendium include: The Eight Verses (Tsik- gye Mar) by Dorje Seng-ge (1044-1123), the Wheel of Knives (Tsoncha Korlo) by Master Dharma Rakshita (~1000 CE), Seven-Step Practice for Developing the Good Heart (Lojong Dun Dunma) by Geshe Chekawa (1101-1175), The Advices of the Victorious One (Danlak) by Gyalwa Yang Gunpa (1213-1258), and Freedom from the Four Attachments (Shenpa Shi- drel) by Sachen Kunga Nyinpo (1092-1158).
The primary topics include:
How to develop a good heart, how to practice throughout the day, how to develop the wish for enlightenment, the eight verses of mind training, the 18 pledges for developing a good heart, the six keys to successful practice, the five powers, the five mental poisons, seven steps to developing a good heart, the three virtues, how to respond to the eight worldly thoughts, the real meaning of freedom from attachment, how to behave in difficult situations, the difference between how things happen and why things happen, how to send your mind into death (powa), and seeing angels.
TIMOTHY LOWENHAUPT
Timothy Lowenhaupt has been the Executive Director of the Asian Classics Institute since 2017, a translator for the Diamond Cutter Classics since 2022, and teaches extensively around the world. He previously was the Managing Director of Red Capital Education & Travel, which owns a portfolio of hotels and commercial properties in Sedona, AZ, from 2019-2024. In 2023, one of its properties, the Adobe Grand Villas, was rated the #1 small hotel in the United States by TripAdvisor, and another lodging property was rated the #1 Bed & Breakfast in Sedona, AZ.He has also worked in translation and interpreting, both as a translator and in project management, as well as in pharmaceutical marketing and patient technology development.He received a master’s degree (MA) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003 and graduated with honors and distinction from Penn State with a Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) in 2001. Tim also is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.🗓️ ACI 14 Schedule:
ALL CLASSES at 6 – 7:30 am
(ARIZONA TIME)
Class 1 – Monday, April 28
Class 2 – Thursday, May 1
Class 3 – Monday, May 5
Class 4 – Thursday, May 8
Class 5 – Monday, May 12
Class 6 – Thursday, May 15
Class 7 – Monday, May 19
Class 8 – Thursday, May 22
Class 9 – Monday, May 26
Class 10 – Thursday, May 29
Review Class – Monday, June 2