Mahayana

The Source of the Tantras Tantra practice requires conviction in the authenticity of the tantras, correct understanding of their procedures and theory, and certainty of their validity as methods leading to enlightenment. According to the Tibetan tradition, Shakyamuni Buddha...

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 developed ourselves already along the Buddhist way through the various stages of the lam-rim, the graded stages...

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

Linear and Nonlinear Models of Progress We all wish to make progress on the spiritual path, but because we have unrealistic ideas about how progress happens, we are frustrated. Many want instant and consistent results, and that does not happen. Consequently, following an...

A short introduction to how Buddhism spread from its beginnings in northern India to become the major belief system across much of Asia.

The 37 Factors Leading to a Purified State The four close placements of mindfulness (dran-pa nyer-bzhag, Skt. smrtyupasthana, Pali: satipatthana) are the first four of the 37 factors leading to a purified state (byang-chub yan-lag so-bdun). There are three purified states...

Introduction The four immeasurable attitudes (tshad-med bzhi, Skt. apramana, Pali: appamanna) are: immeasurable love (byams-pa, Skt: maitri, Pali: metta) immeasurable compassion (snying-rje, Skt: karuna, Pali: karuna) immeasurable joy (dga'-ba, Skt: mudita, Pali:...

There are fourteen unspecified points (lung-du ma-bstan-pa bcu-bzhi), which are points about which Buddha did not specify an answer when asked. Often this set of fourteen is referred to as the “fourteen questions to which Buddha remained silent.” The Mahayana Version To those...

Introduction The ten far-reaching attitudes (pha-rol-tu phyin-pa, Skt. paramita, Pali: parami; perfections) are found in the Theravada, Mahayana, and Bon traditions. Literally, they are states of mind that bring bodhisattvas to the far shore – namely, to enlightenment....