Part One: Contrasting Bodhisattvas with Ordinary Beings Two Traditions for Developing Conventional Bodhichitta To destroy self-grasping and self-cherishing and to attain enlightenment, all mind training texts emphasize tonglen. This is the practice of giving and taking as...

Contrasting Bodhisattvas with Ordinary Beings The text, Wheel of Sharp Weapons, begins with Dharmarakshita contrasting bodhisattvas with ordinary beings. Bodhisattvas practice tonglen – giving and taking – taking from others the three poisonous disturbing states of mind or...

Tantra Is an Advanced Practice For our last session together, let’s speak a little bit about tantra. We also need to bring tantra down to earth. Often, Western people, when approaching the tantric teachings in Tibetan Buddhism, fall into one of two extremes. One extreme is to...

Find out more about Dr. Alexander Berzin, founder of the Berzin Archives.

Shakyamuni Buddha's life story, and what it means to be a Buddha.

Understanding the Five Aggregates in Order to Understand Our Experience The first question that might come up when we begin this topic is why would we want to study and learn about the five aggregates – forms of physical phenomena, feelings of some level of happiness,...

Is it a matter of free will, is it predetermined, does it come from karma or from some other complex explanation?

Learn why Dr. Berzin began berzinarchives.com, the original version of studybuddhism.com, in 2001.

Buddha-Nature Factors We have beginningless unawareness, these two obscurations and beginningless Buddha-nature, these two networks. On the basis level, because we’re building up positive force with unawareness, naivety, and so on, it just...

People look to Buddhism to find methods for dealing with difficulties in their lives.