Mahayana

Proper Motivation and Explanation of the Title and Homage Before beginning, we set the motivation of wishing to listen to these teachings in order to actually achieve the state of enlightenment in order to benefit everyone. If we set this type of motivation, the benefits of...

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...

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...

(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...

A brief picture of Buddhism in Asia and the West.

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

Dudjom Rinpoche’s commentary to the third chapter of Longchenpa’s “Precious Garland for the Four Themes of (Gampopa),” entitled “Having the Pathway Minds Eliminate Confusion.”

The ten far-reaching attitudes are states of mind that bring bodhisattvas to enlightenment. Although shravakas may also develop these attitudes, they are not considered “far-reaching” unless they are conjoined with a bodhichitta aim.

When we understand different schools properly from their own points of view, we develop a great deal of respect for all of the teachings of the Buddha.

A variety of forms of Buddhism developed as people in the different lands it reached emphasized one or another aspect of the teachings. Here is a general description of some of the major forms found in Southeast Asia, China and Tibet.