(1) Through my constructive act of having (reflected upon and) composed Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior, may all wandering beings become (adornments for the world,) engaged in the behavior of bodhisattvas. (2) As many beings as there are in all directions, diseased with...

A deep understanding of the various components of an empowerment is important for gaining the most benefit from the experience.

Review We have been discussing yesterday how we develop relative bodhichitta – sometimes that’s called conventional bodhichitta. We make a differentiation between relative and deepest truth: In the Gelug tradition, when we speak about deepest...

Meditation on emptiness as the way to develop deepest bodhichitta.

Levels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha So far in our discussion, we’ve seen the general structure of how we meditate on refuge, putting a safe direction in our life. Now, we can get into the specifics of where this direction is going. This is described and indicated by the...

Introduction To begin our discussion of the mind and five aggregates, let’s examine the importance of understanding what the mind is. The reason for that is very simple: we all want to be happy and not to suffer; we don’t want to be unhappy. The source of long-lasting enduring...

Definition of the Two Truths Deepest Truth A mind that analyzes the deepest nature of a knowable phenomenon takes as its involved object (’jug-yul) its deepest essential nature, i.e. it takes the voidness of the phenomenon as the main object with which it cognitively engages....

Mara personifies everything that interferes with and puts to an end our spiritual practice.

Review of the Conventional “Me” Being an Imputation on the Five Aggregates We’ve been speaking about voidness (emptiness) and we have seen that voidness is a negation phenomenon, something that we know by negating or refuting something else. What we are refuting, when we know...

This article explores the dynamics of relating to others as part of the ongoing process of providing a bridge between modern Western thought and Buddhism.