Definitions of Love, Compassion and Bodhichitta Today I’ve been asked to speak to you about the practice and methods for equalizing and exchanging your attitudes concerning self and others. The subjects of love and compassion, and developing a dedicated heart of bodhichitta,...

Next is the renunciation of clinging to our own aims – in other words self-cherishing – and having our main interest instead being in cherishing others and fulfilling their aims. What are we determining to be free of? We need to identify that, and this is having our main...

Brief Review We’ve been speaking about the different levels of renunciation, and we have extended the traditional way of explaining it just in terms of the intermediate level of motivation in lam-rim to a much broader spectrum, as indicated by the Sakya teaching of Parting...

Once we have dealt with this Dharma Lite version of renouncing our clinging to short-term benefit in this lifetime, and thinking instead of long-term benefit in this lifetime, then we’re ready to go to the Real Thing Dharma, which is the initial scope of lam-rim motivation....

The next level of determination to be free is renunciation of clinging to self-established existence and having our main interest instead be in voidness, emptiness. What a Buddha Perceives To understand this, let me explain a little bit about what a Buddha actually perceives...

Review of the Six Levels of Clinging We have identified six levels of clinging that we can work on renouncing and developing a determination to be free of. We need to renounce: Our clinging to short-term benefit, and have our main interest be instead in long-term benefit in...

The last topic that we will speak about is renunciation of our minds giving rise to ordinary appearances and of our clinging to these ordinary appearances, and having our main interest be instead in having our minds giving rise to pure appearances of Buddha-figures and...

General Introduction and Overview The teachings are infinite in their extent and are addressed to beings of infinite types of dispositions. They can all be included within three vehicles of mind: Hinayana, Mahayana sutra, and Mahayana tantra. All of these vehicles of mind and...

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

The Meaning of Renunciation: The Determination to Be Free This weekend we are going to be talking about a central topic in the Buddhist teachings – the determination to be free, usually translated as “renunciation.” This term renunciation is a little bit difficult to...