Brief Review We have been discussing the mind, mental activity and the five aggregate factors that make up each moment of our experience. We have covered the basic presentation, but this is a brief review.  Mental Activity in Buddhism Mental activity occurs on the basis...

The Self in Relationship to Our Discussion of Karma Defining the Self or “Me” Now, we can begin our discussion of the self, “me,” and the relation of the self with what we have been discussing. We’ve seen that all the various components of karmic cause and effect during an...

Brief Review of the Twelve Links We have been discussing the twelve links of dependent arising, an explanation of how uncontrollably recurring rebirth works. This is what samsara is all about. The entire rebirth cycle is driven by our unawareness of how we and others exist....

The karmic impulses of the body, speech and mind can be further divided into seven types.  Nagarjuna’s Presentation Nagarjuna states in Root Verses on the Middle Way, Called Discriminating Awareness (dBu-ma rtsa-ba’i tshig-le’ur byas-pa shes-rab ces bya-ba, Skt....

This practice derives from Shantideva’s “Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior.” Doing these preliminaries before daily meditation or Dharma study helps to establish a properly receptive state of mind.

Introduction to the Seven-Part Practice We need to realize that guru-yoga, a type of meditation practice, is one of the preliminaries. It’s a ngondro (sngon-’gro) practice. Ngondro means preliminary practices, and there are special preliminary practices that are shared in...

In the seven-part cause and effect meditation for generating bodhichitta, we go through a sequence of factors, such as remembering the motherly love we have received, that lead us to it.

Renunciation is the determination to do everything we can to get rid of our suffering and attain liberation.

The Revival of Monasteries in Central Tibet In Central Tibet, a great many of the monasteries, even smaller ones, are being rebuilt. Local disrobed monks, usually with financial aid from geshes and lamas in the West, are doing much of the work, reconstructing the buildings...

As of 1995, there were no books on Buddhism in the colloquial Mongolian language, hardly anyone who could make such translations and no money to print such books, even if they were made. Thus, young people and intellectuals were being drawn to Christianity, which they now...