The Natural Purity of the Mind The family trait that allows for the attainment of the Corpuses of a Buddha is an unaffected, static phenomenon; it is the abiding family-trait, the one that abides as our self-nature. The family traits that become the Corpuses of a Buddha are...

Review  Yesterday, we were speaking about the seven diamond-strong points which are presented here in the text. We saw that these seven are the Buddhas, the Dharma, the Sangha, the source (which refers to Buddha-nature), then enlightenment, the qualities of that state and...

Chapter Two: The Enlightened State  Chapter two is the chapter on enlightenment, the state of total purification and growth, the highest bodhi or purified state. This is in 73 verses and discusses the topic in eight points. The Essential Nature of Enlightenment The first...

The Indian Tenet Systems on Rebirth, Liberation and a Creator In India, at both the time before and after the Buddha came, there were many systems of tenets. Within the Charvaka school of tenets, there's no acceptance of past lives and future lives. They assert that the mind...

Buddha-Nature  What do family-traits mean?  A family-trait is “gotra,” which is family or caste. The traits are characteristics of someone who belongs to a certain family or caste. It can be the family or caste of those who can become Buddhas, so the Buddha-family....

Origin of the Text According to Tradition  In this seminar, we will talk about the great Mahayana text by Maitreya, Mahayana-uttaratantra Shastra (Theg-pa chen-po rgyud bla-ma’i bstan-bcos), about Buddha-nature. It’s An Indicative Composition on a Vast Vehicle of the...

Introduction The text that I will be explaining is called The Furthest Everlasting Continuum, Uttaratantra in Sanskrit, Gyu Lama in Tibetan. It has five chapters and if I were to explain this slowly in a relaxed manner, it would take one or two weeks. But today we need to...

Questions about the Clear Light Mind If the clear light mind is not influenced by causes and circumstances and it's not independently existing, then by what is it influenced? When we speak of clear light mind as being an unaffected or unconditioned phenomenon, we need to...

Precious Human Life Today, we are at Lama Tsongkhapa Institute, which is headed by two great spiritual masters. We have come together for spiritual teachings, and we are all very fortunate to have this opportunity. I am very happy to be here with you today. In general, it is...

Sources of Safe Direction In terms of objects that provide refuge or safe direction, there are the ultimate and provisional sources of safe direction. Sources of safe direction that can bring us to the ultimate or final endpoint of the path are referred to as ultimate or final...