We have been going through one of the methods for generating bodhichitta, which is an expansion of the meditations on equalizing and exchanging our attitudes about self and others. It derives from the teachings of Shantideva in Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior (Skt....

Affection  In making cherishing others our main practice, we need to take into consideration the fact that everybody appreciates kindness and affection, but sometimes the word “affection” is misunderstood. It is more than just love. Love is (in the Buddhist definition)...

The Decision That We Definitely Will Rid Ourselves of Self-Cherishing  The second decision that we make is that we definitely shall rid ourselves of self-cherishing. This we do by thinking of the faults of having the self-cherishing attitude. The main emphasis here is...

Mahamudra Meditation on the Conventional Nature of Mind The mahamudra realization is never "Just live naturally like an animal. Just see and hear, and have no thoughts." That is not it at all. Furthermore, even if we are able, through the initial mahamudra methods, to...

The Determination to Be Free, the First of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path   In Buddhism, we speak of three principal aspects of the path: the determination to be free, usually translated as “renunciation,” a vast enlightening aim of bodhichitta, and a...

The distinctions among the four classes of tantra can be described in terms of varying levels of reliance on external and internal methods and with the analogy of an increasing level of blissful awareness used to focus on voidness.

Understanding Rebirth in Life Forms Other Than Human or Animal A topic that is often skipped over is that of the sufferings of the three lower realms, or the “three worse realms” as I prefer to call them. The Tibetan term is actually the “three bad realms,” but “bad” seems a...

Definition of the Mental Factor of Discriminating In the Vaibhashika system, the mental factor of discriminating (shes-rab, Skt. prajñā) is one of the ten great mental factors grounded in all cognizing minds (sa chen-po-pa, Skt. mahābhūmika), whether with a sense consciousness...

The Impropriety of Giving Initiations to Those Having No Understanding of Voidness  It is wrong for lamas to give initiations to those who don’t even know about bodhichitta and voidness. Perhaps they are only giving them for fame. The Nalanda masters did not give...

The graded-path presentations nearly always include instructions on appropriate thoughts and actions for disciples in relationship to their mentors, whether on the sutra or the tantra level.