Introduction Amdo, especially the areas around Lanzhou 兰州 and southern Gansu 甘肃, and Xining 西宁 and northeastern Qinghai 青海, has seen an influx of Han Chinese and Hui Muslim settlers. Many villages, even in the highlands, are almost entirely Muslim, and this is reportedly the...

The Creation of Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia was created as a separate entity from the rest of Mongolia by the Manchus, because the Mongols in this region submitted to the Manchus in the mid-seventeenth century, about 60 years before Khalkha, or what later became known as...

The situation of religion in the People’s Republic of China had deteriorated over the two years since 1994, with Buddhism facing the most difficulties of all the religions. At that time, in contrast to Buddhism, Islam was not considered a threat to people’s allegiance to the...

Verses 25 through 37 and Concluding Verses Togme Zangpo then discusses the six far-reaching attitudes or the so-called “perfections” or “paramitas,” which are a very important basis for our bodhisattva behavior. The bodhisattva vows, particularly the secondary vows, are a way...

The six preparatory practices derive from Atisha. They are preparation for any meditation session or session of ngondro preliminary practice.

The four noble truths have sixteen aspects, four to each of the truths, a topic that is the main focus of meditation on the path that leads to both liberation and enlightenment.

Brief Review In our last session, we discussed death, impermanence, and the suffering of the three lower realms. These unfortunate states of rebirth are as a hell creature, a hungry ghost or an animal. The suffering of each of these three rebirth states can be explained...

Then the Tathagata said this to the noble goddess Bodhisattva-samucchaya: “O noble goddess, at that time, at that moment, a king called Suvarna-bhujendra, with this eulogy of all the tathagatas called the Source of Lotuses, praised past, future and present buddhas: Conquerors...

The true source of happiness is thinking, speaking and acting in constructive, compassionate ways.

The Special Role of Oral Transmission in Tantra Oral transmission and inspiration from spiritual mentors play an even larger role in tantra than they do in sutra practice. This is evident from the structure of the tantric texts themselves and from the indispensable role of...