Obstacles

Discriminating awareness is to discriminate between what’s correct and incorrect, what’s helpful and harmful. For this, we have the last two of the eightfold path: right view and right intention (right motivating thought). Right view concerns what we believe to be true, based...

Paranoia and Vulnerability One of the most important aspects of healthy disciple-mentor relationships is for disciples to receive inspiration from their mentors. This can only occur if they are open to their mentors' uplifting positive influence. Some disciples, however, are...

Let’s continue with our format, which is to speak about various topics within tantra based on your questions and interests.  The Meaning of a Deity’s Hand Implements  What about the weapon-like instruments that the various Buddha-figures are holding, is there a practical way...

Applying Sutra-Level Guru-Meditation to a Faulty or Abusive Teacher His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama had two regents during his minority. They taught him extensively and conferred upon him numerous tantric empowerments. They also engaged in a power struggle and had...

Preliminaries for Shamatha Meditation The text continues with a full discussion of the sutra tradition of mahamudra, And so for this (sutra tradition of mahamudra), out of the two methods, namely seeking a meditative state on top of having gained a correct view (of voidness)...

Combining Mahamudra with Other Sutra and Tantra Practices and with the Four Types of Behavior As for the third part, the concluding material, there are also the actions for enhancing your progress. When, without meandering, you have totally immersed yourself in the mental...

Review  We have been speaking about self-voidness and other-voidness and, so far, we are restricting our discussion to the Gelug assertions, although Gelug does not use the terms self-voidness and other-voidness for its own assertions. Some non-Gelug masters, however, do use...

Verses 7 through 10 Verse 7: Ridding Ourselves of Distractions to Our Meditation Let me rid myself of all material burdens and adorn myself with an arya’s gems. So, let me rid myself of all bustling activities and live in seclusion. Living in Seclusion to Avoid Becoming...

Stages in the Contemporary Life Cycle In New Passages, Sheehy explained that the stages of the human life cycle vary according to socioeconomic class and the conditions of the times. Using this thesis, she discovered a new paradigm for the adult life cycle of contemporary,...

Questions about the Clear Light Mind If the clear light mind is not influenced by causes and circumstances and it's not independently existing, then by what is it influenced? When we speak of clear light mind as being an unaffected or unconditioned phenomenon, we need to...