How to Refute the Assertions of Lower Tenet Schools The way in which we should understand how the position of a higher school of tenets undermines or damages another lower school can be understood in terms of how Madhyamaka undermines and refutes the Chittamatra assertion in...

Refuge as the Basic Orientation of Our Lives We’ve been speaking about various problems that we sometimes face with Buddhism, and we’ve been focusing on the difficulty that many of us often have in actually applying the Buddhist teachings to our lives. Another area that’s...

Brief Introduction to Nalanda Monastery Today we are here at Nalanda Monastery in France. In ancient India there was also a Nalanda Monastery, or Shri Nalanda in Sanskrit, meaning the great all-around perfect Nalanda Monastery. Many great masters studied and taught there,...

The Dalai Lama advises that the concept of nonviolence and dialogue needs to be taught in educational institutions. It is important for the younger generation to learn them, so that the ideas of dialogue and nonviolence become a part of their lives.

With bodhichitta, we are aimed at our own, individual future state of enlightenment in order to best help others, and, with the use of our own positive qualities – love, compassion, consideration – we bring benefit and more happiness to ourselves and to others along the way.

We can have some questions about the points we’ve just covered and then we can go on. Let’s keep our questions specific to this topic. In the afternoon, we can open it up to more general questions about tantra. Questions and Answers Strengthening Belief in Rebirth You made the...

Self-compassion is a vital aspect of Buddhist practice. Treating ourselves with the same kindness that we extend to others builds a foundation for greater compassion toward all beings.

The Definition of Mind: General Considerations Having discussed the preliminaries, let us now turn to the actual practice of mahamudra – meditation on the nature of mind. When we raise the topic of the nature of mind, we of course need to explore first what we mean by...

Introduction This weekend we are going to be talking about happiness and its role in sutra and tantra practice. There are of course many different ways to approach the topic, but what I propose to do first this evening, as a way of introduction, is to talk about where...

Learn about the philosophical basis of Kalachakra according to the Jonangpa school and the history of its transmission.