Mahayana

The Source of the Tantras Tantra practice requires conviction in the authenticity of the tantras, correct understanding of their procedures and theory, and certainty of their validity as methods leading to enlightenment. According to the Tibetan tradition, Shakyamuni Buddha...

Proper Motivation and Explanation of the Title and Homage Before beginning, we set the motivation of wishing to listen to these teachings in order to actually achieve the state of enlightenment in order to benefit everyone. If we set this type of motivation, the benefits of...

Review We’ve been speaking about the bodhisattva vows, and we have taken a look at their role on the Buddhist path. We’ve seen that in order to take them, we need to have already developed ourselves along the Buddhist way through the various stages of the lam-rim, the graded...

(11) Teaching Voidness to Those Whose Minds Are Untrained We’ve been going through the bodhisattva vows. We have covered ten of the 18 vows and we’re up to number 11. What we want to avoid with this vow is teaching voidness to those whose minds are untrained. This is talking...

This article explains the various non-conflicting contextual presentations of the Buddha’s life, and teaches us how these can be practically applied to our spiritual path.

A brief picture of Buddhism in Asia and the West.

A short introduction to how Buddhism spread from its beginnings in northern India to become the major belief system across much of Asia.

“Hinayana” has become a collective term for 18 Buddhist schools, only one of which is currently extant and with scriptures in Pali, Theravada. “Mahayana” similarly spans several schools, not all of which have scriptures in classical Sanskrit.

Progress made on the spiritual path occurs through a combination of both linear and nonlinear models. Learn the sources of these models in the teachings and how they fit together.

The ten far-reaching attitudes are states of mind that bring bodhisattvas to enlightenment. Although shravakas may also develop these attitudes, they are not considered “far-reaching” unless they are conjoined with a bodhichitta aim.