Shamatha and Vipashyana

The Basic Prerequisites for Achieving Shamatha Having presented the various traditions that transmit methods for meditating on mahamudra, the Fourth Panchen Lama now begins his discussion of the actual methods for mahamudra practice. He explains that there are two...

Review True sufferings and the true origins of sufferings are the first two noble truths. These are the things that we need to rid ourselves of. There are four aspects that are associated with each of these and, to work with them in meditation, it is necessary to have a clear...

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...

With far-reaching concentration, we’re able to stay perfectly focused while helping others and in all meditations for reaching enlightenment.

Mindfulness practice becomes the most effective when it includes the full array of mental factors explained in the traditional Buddhist presentations of it.

Even non-Buddhists can have valid apprehension of voidness, but not non-conceptional cognition, and thus cannot achieve a true stopping of suffering.

The Nyingma master Longchenpa uses the structure of the four themes of Gampopa to elaborate on the graded path of sutra, tantra and dzogchen.

Shamatha emphasizes stabilizing meditation. Vipashyana emphasizes discerning meditation. A state of vipashyana is pervasive with being a state of the joined pair: stabilizing and discerning meditations.

A detailed line-by-line commentary on the shorter of the Ninth Karmapa’s two texts on the Karma Kagyu tradition of mahamudra meditation.

In the sutras, Buddha taught four types of objects of focus for practitioners to employ in meditation.