The Complexity of Karma Karma is a topic that concerns what happens to us and why. It is something that is very relevant to all of us on a personal level, not something outside of the sphere of our lives. If we can start to understand karma and how it works, we can begin to...

The founding of the Sautrantika tenet system is attributed to Kumaralata (Skt. Kumāralāta) (aka Kumaralabdha, Skt. Kumāralabdha) in the late first century CE. He rejected the Sarvastivada abhidharma sources in favor of relying exclusively on the Sarvastivada sutras. His views...

In accord with the Sarvastivada abhidharma texts and The Great Extensive Commentarial Treatise on Special Topics of Knowledge (Skt. Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣa-śāstra), compiled in the late first century CE at the Fourth Buddhist Council, the Vaibhashika system that followed this...

Brief Review of the System of Karma According to Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna Last time, we presented the main components of karma, or karmic impulses, according to Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna. We saw that mental karma refers to the mental factor of a compelling urge that draws the...

The Constraints Regarding Five Systems of Natural Order According to Theravada Let me explain a little bit here about karmic and non-karmic impulses so that we have some idea of what we are actually talking about when we talk about karma and the issue of choice. In Theravada,...

Today you have asked me to give an explanation of the practice of The Three Essential Moments involved with the meditation deity of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig. The actual title of the text from which I will be teaching is called the Method of Practicing the Instructions for...

I’ve been asked to teach about the stages of the tantra path. This is an extremely intensive and difficult subject that will take a great deal of time. I would like to explain this very fully, but that would be very difficult. Thus, we will maybe cover only ten percent of the...

General Outline [The basic outline of the text is divided into three: The homage The promise to compose The actual presentation of the stages and paths of tantra. The actual presentation of the stages and paths of tantra is divided into two: The stages and paths of the three...

Progressing through the Stages The text presents the five paths and the ten stages in kriya tantra and states that, after having received the pure initiation and experienced the inartificial, unlabored type of bodhichitta attitude, with which we pledge to achieve Buddhahood...

Progressing through the Stages The text presents the five paths and the ten stages in kriya tantra and states that, after having received the pure initiation and experienced the inartificial, unlabored type of bodhichitta attitude, with which we pledge to achieve Buddhahood...