Review We’re continuing our discussion of this particular verse by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which explains how we go from understanding the two truths to understanding the Four Noble Truths, to having confidence in the Three Precious Gems. We’ve seen that the two truths...

Working toward a Spiritual Goal There are two ways that we can work toward a spiritual goal: On the basis of faith – we have faith that it’s possible to achieve that goal. On the basis of this faith you work toward it, and as you proceed further in your training, you...

Karmic impulses of the body and speech include both revealing forms and nonrevealing forms. What are nonrevealing forms and what are their characteristic properties? Nonrevealing Forms Are Exclusively Constructive or Destructive  Vasubandhu affirms in A Treasure House of...

Mongolian Tulkus By 2022, twenty-two Mongolian tulkus, reincarnations of Mongolian eminent lamas, had been recognized since the democratic change. An additional few have been identified in 2023. They continue their advanced studies at the Tibetan monasteries in India and spend...

What are further properties of nonrevealing forms? Nonrevealing Forms Are Not Conjoined with the Great Elements of the Body Vasubandhu states in A Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge, Put in Verses (Chos mngon-pa’i mdzod-kyi tshig-le’ur byas-pa, Skt....

The Connection between Karmic Aftermath and Karmic Results What connects the different kinds of karmic aftermath and the karmic results? This is an issue that is much debated and each of the Indian Buddhist tenet systems has a different explanation. All the tenet systems...

Review In this formulation, karma is exclusively a mental factor, an urge or impulse. It is the impulse that, while focused on an object, drives the primary consciousness and its accompanying mental factors to engage, in the next moment, in a specific action directed toward or...

The remainder of the Umayyad period over the ensuing years of the first half of the eighth century saw a bewildering frequent change of alliances as even more powers entered the fray for control of West Turkistan and the Silk Route. Through a review of the main events, it will...

Going from a Conceptual to a Non-Conceptual Cognition of Voidness Let us go back to what we were discussing before about voidness meditation. The earlier Tibetan traditions were saying that to attain the non-conceptual cognition of voidness, first we need to attain conceptual...

We can only gain confidence in the tantra path based on confidence in the sutra path, with conviction that liberation and enlightenment are possible and understanding of how the tantra methods work to bring about their attainment.