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.

The Kalachakra depiction of the non-Indic prophets and its prophecies of a future war with their followers must be understood in its historical and cultural context.

The next set of three links concern activation of the karmic tendencies at the time of death. The eighth and ninth links, thirsting and an obtainer attitude, activate the karmic tendencies, while the tenth link, further existence, refers to the activated tendencies themselves....

Inferential Cognition  The next is inferential cognition, and here in the Gelugpa Sautrantika system, this is a cognition that arises depending on a line of reasoning. For example, we could directly perceive smoke coming from the house on the other side of the valley. If...

The First Law of Karma There are certain general aspects of karma called “the four laws of karma.” If we ask why these laws work the way they do, it is just the way it is. It is like asking why does everybody want to be happy and not to suffer? It is just the way it is. We...

Childhood and Renunciation of Princely Life In eastern India, in the land of Jahor, in the city of Bangala, in the Golden Banner Palace, lived King Kalyana the Good and Queen Prabhavati the Radiant. The royal palace was crowned with thirteen golden roofs, one set atop the...

Prophesies Before Milarepa received his various disciples, the Buddha-figure Vajrayogini appeared to him in a vision and prophesied that in the not too distant future he would receive a sun-like disciple, a moon-like disciple, and many other disciples who would be like the...

Shantideva was born in the eighth century as the son of the king of a land in the Bengal region of East India. When he was about to ascend to the throne, he had a dream of Manjushri, who said, “The throne is not for you.” Heeding Manjushri’s advice, he renounced the throne and...