Renunciation is the determination to be free from not only all forms of suffering, but also from its causes. It is based on the rational conviction that it is possible to become free of them.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama invokes the spiritual masters of the Nalanda tradition.

Flow with the inevitable changes in life, to stay in tune with the present moment.

Showing How the Systems of the So-Called Prasangika Over-refuters Contradict That Special Distinguishing Feature of Madhyamaka Objection: (So-called Prasangikas) think that arising and ceasing are untenable in the context of either the voidness of self-establishing...

Difficulties with Terminology When Studying Karma One of the difficulties in studying karma is that the Tibetan terminology has many different meanings. For example, in Tibetan, the potentials and tendencies can also be called habits. It’s very confusing that the Tibetan terms...

Brief Historical Background of Non-Gelug and Tsongkhapa’s Systems Now we’re ready to look at Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna’s presentation of karma as asserted by Tsongkhapa. This is in accord with Tsongkhapa’s special way of explaining the Prasangika system of Madhyamaka. Someone...

As we have seen, sound in general, including a revealing form of speech, is a non-appropriated (ma-zin-pa, Skt. anupātta) form of physical phenomena. Not being a part of the body, sound cannot be the physical support for a consciousness and its accompanying mental factors. But...

Review In the discussion of the mental factor of an urge, in which we have borrowed and adapted to the Vaibhashika view the distinction between a performer and exertional impulse that Sautrantika draws, we have seen that urges that affect and drive a consciousness and its...

Having refuted that revealing forms (rnam-par rig-byed-kyi gzugs, Skt. vijñaptirūpa) of the body are karmic impulses, Sautrantika nevertheless accepts the existence of revealing forms. However, it does not accept them as existing or as knowable in the same ways that...

Brief Review Definition of Karma We have been discussing karma or, more fully karmic impulses, as a compulsiveness that is associated with our ways of acting, speaking and thinking. The karmic impulse for an action of the mind is the compelling urge that drives our thinking...