How Is It Possible to Make a Decision? We’ve gotten to the point of: How do we make a decision? How does a decision arise? We have two wishes, two feelings that arise from all sorts of circumstances – to yell or not to yell. It’s not free will, because there’s...

Learn about the nature of happiness and how we can strengthen and use it on the Buddhist path as a pathway mind leading to liberation and enlightenment.

We can access the Buddhist teachings, whenever and wherever we want, on our phones and laptops. What is the role of the spiritual teacher in such a society and such an age?

The 12 links of dependent arising is a central and important topic in the Buddhist path; it’s important to know why it’s important in order to develop interest and motivation to study and learn about it. As an introduction, let me discuss this importance first. The Importance...

The true causes of our true sufferings are our belief in a false reality and unawareness that it is mere fantasy, plus the disturbing emotions and compulsive behavior that they generate.

Generating a Bodhichitta Aim Earlier, we saw that once genuine, pure renunciation is generated in our mental continuum, that is the point when we are truly on the Dharma path. This is the start of the path. We may have heard about the Mahayana and Hinayana paths and might even...

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....