Prayer and Rituals

(1) Through my constructive act of having (reflected upon and) composed Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior, may all wandering beings become (adornments for the world,) engaged in the behavior of bodhisattvas. (2) As many beings as there are in all directions, diseased with...

Bodhisattva Vows For practicing the engaged state of bodhichitta and being best able to practice the six far-reaching attitudes, we need to take the bodhisattva vows. This involves refraining from committing the 18 root downfalls and the 46 faulty actions that transgress these...

Alternative Kalachakra deals with the methods for overcoming being under the influence of the external and internal cycles of time. The Kalachakra Tantra presents these methods in its third, fourth and fifth chapters. The third chapter deals with the empowerment, the...

“A Meeting of Two Oceans; Dialogue on Sufism and Buddhism”: a dialogue at the Roshan Center for Persian Studies, University of Maryland.

An overview of the structure of a “sadhana,” a visualization method used in tantra for generating and actualizing ourselves as a Buddha-figure.

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.

This practice derives from Shantideva’s “Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior.” Doing these preliminaries before daily meditation or Dharma study helps to establish a properly receptive state of mind.

A prayer by Tsongkhapa to be able to engage in constructive actions at the beginning, middle and end of the path to enlightenment.

Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey’s prayer to Maitreya, the future Buddha.

After completing preliminary practices and following an initiatory ceremony that activates our Buddha-nature potentials, along with taking bodhisattva and tantric vows, we transform our minds in tantra by imagining ourselves as a Buddha-figure and our environment as a mandala,...