We were in the middle of asking some questions concerning the defining characteristics of mind, and there were a few hands that were up with questions. Does anybody have further questions they’d like to ask?  How Can There Be Two Thoughts at the Same Time?  How can...

An examination of the concept of karma, which is considered the most complex topic in the Buddhist teachings.

The First Aspect of Close Placement of Mindfulness on the Body: The Body as Being Nonstatic, Impermanent We saw in the Mahayana tradition that with the general way of focusing on the body, what we distinguish about it is that it is unclean and impure. We take our body to mind...

Once we have a little bit of an understanding of the twelve links of dependent arising and how our uncontrollably recurring rebirth, samsara, actually works, then we can focus with close placement of mindfulness on the feelings in terms of being the true origins of suffering....

The difference between the Gelug presentation of voidness and that shared in common by Kagyu, Nyingma and Sakya concern the type of voidness that is cognized non-conceptually and how to attain non-conceptual cognition of it.

An overview of the Gelug presentation and some of its ramifications concerning the view of valid cognition.

To know how to cognize voidness, both conceptually and non-conceptually, and thus how to rid ourselves of the true causes of our true sufferings, we need to know the steps that each Indian Buddhist tenet system explains for the meditative process for realizing voidness.

Objects of Cognition There are four (types) of cognitive objects: (1) appearing, (2) cognitively taken, (3) conceptually implied and (4) involved. Appearing objects and cognitively taken objects are mutually inclusive. Except for (those having) appearances of falling hairs and...

Liberated beings (arhats) have attained a true stopping of all the emotional obscurations, but their mental continuums still contain the cognitive obscurations.

Positive Emotions Are Compatible with the Innate Essential Nature of Mental Activity We saw that it’s possible to attain a true stopping of our unawareness of how everything exists, because there’s a state of mind, correct understanding, that is the exact opposite and...