In order to develop an effective tantra practice, we need to understand what tantra is, how it works and how it’s more efficient than the sutra methods alone. Our practice is effective if it purifies away our emotional and cognitive obscurations and strengthens our...

In eight short verses, Langri Tangpa summarizes the essence of the mind training teachings (lojong) rooted in Shantideva’s “Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior” and Atisha’s “Garland of Bodhisattva Gems.”

With a correct understanding of voidness and dependent arising, we will avoid the two extremes of absolutism and nihilism, and then be best able to deal with the complexities of life.

Introduction to the Root Bodhisattva Vows When we take the bodhisattva vows, we are promising to refrain from two sets of acts. Although these are usually referred to as the root bodhisattva vows and the secondary bodhisattva vows in our Western languages, those are not the...

(11) Teaching Voidness to Those Whose Minds Are Untrained We’ve been going through the bodhisattva vows. We have covered ten of the 18 vows and we’re up to number 11. What we want to avoid with this vow is teaching voidness to those whose minds are untrained. This is talking...

Review We’ve been speaking about the bodhisattva vows, and we have taken a look at their role on the Buddhist path. We’ve seen that in order to take them, we need to have already developed ourselves along the Buddhist way through the various stages of the lam-rim, the graded...

An elaboration of the four reasons for the efficiency of tantra over sutra in general tantra common to all four classes of tantra.

Learn more detail of how Tsongkhapa gained his great qualities and how he was able to reform and revitalize Buddhism in Tibet.

Based strictly on logic and scriptural references, Tsongkhapa radically re-interpreted almost everything in Buddhist philosophy, revising completely the understanding of Prasangika-Madhyamaka of his day, such as its teachings on cognition theory and voidness.

How cognition of voidness liberates us from uncontrollably recurring samsaric rebirth is not a simple or speedy process.