What does the aggregate of forms of physical phenomena include?

Review Clarity or Appearance-Making and Awareness We’ve been discussing mental activity, what the mind actually is, and have noted that its characteristics are clarity and awareness. Clarity is appearance-making, in other words, the giving rise to a mental hologram. This is a...

Brief Review Mind is Mental Activity We started our discussion of the mind and the five aggregates. As mentioned, when we speak about mind in Buddhism, we’re talking about mental activity, the individual mental activity of experiencing something that is going on all the time...

Brief Review Mental activity is the arising of a mental hologram and the cognitive engagement with it changing from moment to moment. It always has content and is multi-part.  The content can be divided into content of mental holograms arising; that’s the form aggregate,...

The Components of the Aggregate of Other Affecting Variables The fourth aggregate, the aggregate of other affecting variables, is the largest collection of items. “Variable” means that it changes, and “affecting” means that it affects our experience. This grouping contains all...

Shabkar presents Nagarjuna and Tsongkhapa’s explanation of how voidness and cause and effect reinforce each other.

Buddhism appeals very much to the modern world because it is based on reason and the scientific method. Buddha said, “Do not believe in anything that I say just out of respect for me, but test it for yourself, analyze it, as if you were buying gold.” Modern-day people are...

What arises in a moment of mental activity includes both ways of cognitively taking objects and cognitive objects that are cognitively taken. Although we can say that both of these appear in a moment of cognition, in the sense that both of these arise, usually what...

Each undertaking of translation from a specific base language to a specific target language has its unique linguistic challenges. In addition, it is important to understand well not only both languages, but also both cultures.

The Source of the Tantras Tantra practice requires conviction in the authenticity of the tantras, correct understanding of their procedures and theory, and certainty of their validity as methods leading to enlightenment. According to the Tibetan tradition, Shakyamuni Buddha...