The Initial Military Drive across Northern India In 1148, Ala-ud-Din of the nomadic Guzz Turks from the mountains of Afghanistan conquered the region of Ghur in eastern Iran, which gave its name to his Ghurid Empire (1148 – 1215). He proceeded to take Bactria from the...

Accepting Loss and Offering Victory to Others (5) When others, out of envy, treat me wrongly with scolding, insults, and more, may I accept the loss upon myself and offer the victory to others. Here’s that famous line that Geshe Chekawa was so moved by: May I accept the loss...

Renunciation is the determination to be free of our sufferings and their causes. When focused on others, with the determination that they be free, this is compassion.

The contrast between the explanations of the two truths given by the Jetsunpa textbook tradition of the Gelug tradition and by the Sakya master Gorampa.

Verses 17 through 21 Today, we will discussion compassion, great compassion, and bodhichitta. I will try to make it quite short. We have a lot of material and to go through.  Developing Compassion Although we might know something about how to practice, what we lack in...

Contemplation on the Rare Precious Human Life, Certainty of Death and Necessity of Dharma  We’ve been talking about the precious human rebirth that we have all achieved. This precious human rebirth has the eight respites and ten enrichments necessary for Dharma practice....

Even if a Western Buddhist community is made up entirely of laymen and laywomen, with no monks or nuns, the monastic vows provide valuable guidelines that Buddha designed for building a harmonious spiritual community.

An examination of the steps of the empowerment so that, regardless of whether we observe or take part, we can follow the procedure and gain something from it.

The Great Benefits of Bodhichitta There are great benefits to be derived from the development of an enlightening aim of bodhichitta. The positive force built up by it of are discussed in twelve lines from a sutra of the Buddha which was requested by the householder Viradatta....

Questions about Visualizing Ourselves and Others as Deities  If we are practicing tantra and one of the tantra practices is to try to view everything in a pure way – in other words, all beings as Buddhas and all environment as mandalas, and so on – isn’t that an obstacle...