Five Paths

Introduction: The Lam-Rim Graded Stages and Levels of Motivation This evening we’re going to start our seminar on a very vital topic. The topic is how to meditate on the voidness of a false “me” experiencing the four noble truths. That sounds complicated and it is complicated....

Introduction to the Four Noble Truths In this seminar, we will be looking at the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths. To attain liberation from uncontrollably recurring rebirth – in other words, liberation from samsara – and to attain the enlightened state of a Buddha, we...

Introduction [As background, see: The Two Truths: Vaibhashika and Sautrantika] The Tibetans study four tenet systems (grub-mtha’) of Indian Buddhism. Among them, Vaibhashika (bye-brag smra-ba) and Sautrantika (mdo-sde-pa) are Hinayana systems – specifically, subdivisions of...

Meditation practice is divided into two sections: Brief explanationDetailed explanation. Prayer to Practice Mahamudra Meditation Properly Verse 15 gives a brief explanation of mahamudra meditation practice with a prayer to be able to practice mahamudra meditation properly....

Review of the Five Aggregates of Experience We have been going through the text of the Heart Sutra, which is presenting in a condensed fashion the teachings on Prajnaparamita, the “far-reaching discriminating awareness of voidness.” Inspired by the Buddha, who is sitting in...

Training in Higher Discriminating Awareness  Removing the Obscurations to Liberation and Enlightenment The discussion of training in higher discriminating awareness starts with the second half of verse 41:  (41b) However, if you have failed to apply yourself to far-reaching...

Features of Negation Phenomena When we have gone through the four-point analysis and we have come to the conclusion that this impossible “me” is not in either of the two possibilities of the dichotomy of existent phenomena, then we have to conclude that it is non-existent....

Realizing the Voidness of Mind Itself Once we have gained conviction in the lack of true and inherent identity on the basis of our own "self," we turn to the basis of other persons or individuals and then to the massive network of all other phenomena. We examine voidness...

The Nyingma explanations by Mipam and the Sakya explanation by Gorampa concerning the stages for ridding ourselves of the emotional and cognitive obscurations.

One of the major Mahayana sutra texts studied by all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism is “A Filigree of Realizations” (“Abhisamayalamkara”), a commentary by Maitreya on the “Prajnaparamita Sutras” on the stages of the realizations.