Lam-rim

Berlin, Germany, June 23, 2009

The Sakya master Gorampa elaborates on “Parting from the Four Clingings” – a four-line teaching encapsulating the entire graded path to enlightenment imparted by Manjushri to Sachen Kunga Nyingpo in a pure vision.

With renunciation we’re not aiming for enlightenment; we’re aiming for liberation from samsara.

Vajrasattva practice is a tantric meditation done for the purification of negative karmic potentials. On an ultimate level, Vajrasattva practice is non-conceptual meditation on voidness.

An explanation on how the four noble truths are understood at initial, intermediate and advanced levels.

Repeatedly gaining precious human rebirths makes the ultimate goals of liberation and enlightenment possible. To understand rebirth, it is essential to understand the nature of our mind and to gain a proper understanding of karma.

The “Guru Puja” – “Lama Chopa” in Tibetan – is a tantric practice, in the Gelug tradition, of making offerings to the spiritual master and includes a review of all the points of the combined sutra and tantra path to enlightenment

“Dharma-Lite” lam-rim, which considers the graded stages in terms of this lifetime alone, and the full training of “Real Thing Dharma” represent different scopes of intention. In both cases, we need to aim to be of best help to everyone.

Atisha’s “Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment” is the forerunner of the Tibetan lam-rim tradition. It places special emphasis on the bodhisattva vows and their necessity for successful tantra practice.

His Holiness’s advice on teaching the lam-rim is to start with the four noble truths.