The Four Seals and the Meaning of the Term "Mahamudra" There are many different ways of explaining mahamudra, the great seal of reality. Different traditions, like the Kagyu, the Sakya and so forth, have many different names and systems of terminology, but they all come...

Meditation is something that is found in many traditions, not just Buddhism; but while many aspects of meditation are found in all Indian traditions, here we shall limit our discussion to the way that meditation is presented in Buddhism. What Is Meditation? The word...

Non-conceptual cognition of self-voidness (“rangtong” – the emptiness of self-established existence) with a mind of other-voidness (“zhentong” – the emptiness of grosser levels of mind) brings enlightenment.

Brief Review of the Initial Level of Motivation The teachings for someone of an initial level motivation have five main points to meditate upon: awareness of the preciousness of the fully endowed human body and the difficulty of obtaining it, death, impermanence and the...

The Rarity of a Precious Human Life In our first discussion, we spoke about how this precious human rebirth that we all have is a perfect working basis for our Dharma practice. This working basis is complete with all of the eighteen qualities: the respites and the enrichments....

Making Life Meaningful Now we will continue with the text. We are on the second verse. (2) Listen with a clear (mind), O fortunate one, whose mind would rely on the path pleasing to the Triumphant through being unattached to the pleasures of compulsive...

We need to have confidence in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to make our refuge firm.

Progress made on the spiritual path occurs through a combination of both linear and nonlinear models. Learn the sources of these models in the teachings and how they fit together.

Tantra entails advanced Mahayana practices that weave together all the different themes of practice that we’ve developed already in sutra. It is the intertwining of the basis, pathway, and resultant conditions of everlasting continuities of Buddha-nature factors to weave a...

The 18 Closely Bonding Practices The sixth point is the eighteen closely bonding practices for mind training – in other words, for cleansing and training our attitudes. “Close bond” in Sanskrit is “samaya,” or “dam-tshig” in Tibetan, which means something that will bond us...