Walking the Bodhisattva Path of Compassion

Walking the Bodhisattva Path of Compassion is a six-week online Buddhist workshop in the Tibetan Mahayana tradition, led live on Zoom by meditation teacher Scott Tusa. It follows the essential arc of The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, a Tibetan text written nearly seven hundred years ago, and is meant for people who want the ideal of compassion to become something they do, whether they have a job, a family, or an ordinary set of struggles.

What to Expect

The group meets weekly on Tuesday evenings at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain and 5pm Pacific. Each hour combines a short guided practice, a teaching that stays close to lived experience, and open time for questions. The live session is where the material is practiced together and where whatever comes up can be worked with.

The weeks move through the main movements of the path:

- Week 1: Intention and the preciousness of this human life, with a guided reflection and questions about entering the path.
- Week 2: Renunciation as a support for compassion rather than a withdrawal, with a guided practice on impermanence.
- Week 3: Equanimity and the beginning of exchanging self and other, including questions about relating to others without losing yourself.
- Week 4: Tonglen and taking adversity onto the path, with a guided tonglen practice and Q&A on real-life difficulty. The teaching addresses how to do this without becoming a doormat or bypassing your own pain.
- Week 5: Emptiness as a support for the path, with a short meditation and discussion.
- Week 6: The six paramitas in daily life, then a closing reflection on renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness, and how to continue.

Between sessions, participants work through the complete 12-week self-paced course, which holds the fuller verse-by-verse teaching. It includes 38 video lessons and 11 guided meditations, along with readings from Ken McLeod's Reflections on Silver River and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's commentary on the text.

About Scott Tusa

Scott Tusa is a Buddhist meditation teacher and former monk with about 25 years of experience exploring how to embody the Buddhist path and live meaningfully through it. The death of his mother when he was sixteen sparked a longing for healing and spiritual wisdom that led him to Tibetan Buddhism. In his early twenties he sought out and learned from a variety of Tibetan Buddhist masters.

He was ordained as a monk by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama at age twenty-eight and spent the next nine years in robes, deepening his understanding of the Dharma, going on solitary meditation retreats, and studying with teachers in India, Nepal and the United States. His main teachers were Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Since 2008 he has taught meditation in group and one-to-one settings across the United States, Europe, Latin America and online. Students describe him as patient, direct and caring, and as someone who connects traditional teachings with modern life.

Before You Go

The workshop is taught in English and takes place entirely online, so all you need is a device with Zoom and a quiet place to practice. No prior experience is stated as a requirement, and the teaching is offered in plain modern language.

Every live session is recorded and downloadable, and all course materials and recordings are yours with lifetime access. Reduced rates are available for those who ask.