Weekly ONLINE interactive course over 6 weeks with Dominique Side
Available on PRAJNA from 18 May - 22 June 2026
Start: 18 May 2026
End: 22 June 2026
Register before 25 May 2026
The live sessions of the course will be given in English and if a small group of French join, translation can be offered. If you wish to follow the live sessions in French, please send an email to gabriele@rigpa.org before 30 April 2026.
Topics of the course
This interactive course will lead us to better understand who we are, how our mind works and where the Buddhist path takes us. We will shed new light on personal struggles with identity, strong emotions and lack of meaning. Bringing together teachings, guided contemplations and discussion, the course is designed to reduce the gap between the Buddhist view and our ordinary thinking. You can be sure it will be engaging and enjoyable!
Who can participate?
This is a special, stimulating course, open to everyone, whether you're a beginner or an experienced Buddhist. It is helpful, but not mandatory to have attended part 1 of A New Way of Seeing the World: Discovering Buddhist Wisdom.
For Rigpa students, this course is an optional module of the 'Foundations of the Path', designed for those who wish to deepen their study at the heart of the 'Buddha, Dharma and Sangha'.
How will the course work?
The weekly 90 min live online sessions include talks, discussions, Q&A and guided reflections.
Most of the course reading will be taken from "A New Way of Seeing. From Knowledge to Insight” by Dominique Side. We recommend purchasing this book in order to follow the course.
The recording of the live sessions you will find by the following Friday evening on Prajna for review or delayed study. These will be available until 31.8.2026.
Content of the weekly sessions
Week 1 Mindful and aware
Week 2 Who do you think you are?
Week 3 Identifying with body and with mind
Week 4 Destructive emotions
Week 5 Unhappiness and pain
Week 6 What does happiness really mean?
Course dates
Monday evenings 19:30-21:00 CET (18:30-20:00 UK time) on
May 18, 25 and
June 1, 8, 15, 22
How to access the course
Register via the orange button "Get access to this event" on the left. Upon registration you will find the blue Zoom button on the left, the course will also be added to your personal library on Prajna.
Flexible contribution
Prajna is a non-profit organisation and your donation/contribution will help to cover the costs of the course:
Suggested contribution/donation: 108 €
If you want to give more: 221 €
If you have less means: 55 €
About Dominique Side
Dominique Side encountered Tibetan Buddhism in the mid-seventies in London—it rapidly became her life’s passion. Since then she has dedicated her life to communicating the extremely practical and at the same time deeply profound ideas of Tibetan Buddhism to people of all walks of life.
Dominique has studied with Sogyal Rinpoche and Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in particular, and has completed several strict practice retreats. She also obtained a Ph.D. in Madhyamaka philosophy from Bristol University, UK. She taught Buddhism in London schools for eight years and wrote several textbooks on the subject. Under the guidance of Dzongsar Khyentse she initiated the Milinda training programme for Dharma teachers in 2017. For five years Dominique served as vice-president of the European Buddhist Union; and she manages ‘Windows into Buddhism’, a website with educational resources for those who teach Buddhism to children.
Entrusted as a Senior Teacher in Rigpa, she specialises in making Buddhist thought and philosophy accessible to all.
Recently Dominique started writing in-depth articles from the Buddhist perspective for her blog The Softer Gaze, that have the power to enrich the everyday and support a softer view of life, one that is infused with the Buddha’s compassionate gaze.
She is author of Discovering Buddhism (2022) that presents the history and key ideas of all the main traditions of Buddhism in an accessible way for the general public and the education sector. More recently Dominique wrote ‘A New Way of Seeing: From Knowledge to insight’ (2025), where she set out to share the basic principles of Buddhist thought in a critical and, above all, relevant way: It presents the Four Noble Truths and invites the reader to unpack them by seeing how they sit with the views we actually hold.
A first deep dive into the topics in her first book ‘Discovering Buddhism’ will be given by Dominique in February, March and April (LINK)
She has also edited two books by the Dalai Lama The Four Noble Truths (Thorsons, 1998) and Transforming the Mind (Thorsons, 1999).