Religious Harmony

Setting the Motivation To differentiate from the non-Buddhists, there is the taking of refuge or safe direction, and to differentiate from the Hinayana path, there is the taking of the Mahayana refuge. We look to the Buddha Shakyamuni as our main example of a source of safe...

Introduction His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama emphasizes that religious harmony must be based on education, knowing about each other’s traditions. With thorough knowledge, we can acknowledge the common goals we share, while respecting the differences. In fact, from...

There is a long history of Muslims being regarded by the Christian West as the forces of the devil. This began at the end of the eleventh century CE with the Crusades to take the Holy Lands from the Muslims. It continued with the fall of ­­the center of Eastern Orth­odox...

What does it mean to understand something is a very important topic because there are so many things that we need to understand. We’re not talking simply about understanding the various points of the Dharma, but this issue is very important in our daily life as well. We need...

General Assertions Buddhism does not assert creation or a creator. The mental continuums of all sentient beings have no beginning. “Sentient beings” are living beings that act with intention and experience happiness or unhappiness as a result. Like souls in Islam, however, the...

The Different Lineages of Mahamudra In general, we could gain a decisive understanding of voidness with respect to any basis characterized by voidness, or having voidness as its nature, such as a vase. There is no difference in the abiding devoid nature itself of a vase or...

The Extraphysical Powers of Rinpoche’s Father, Serkong Dorjechang Serkong Rinpoche never claimed himself to be a yogi or to have any special powers. If we wanted an example of someone who did, he said we did not need to look only to the remote past. His father, Serkong...

Buddhism welcomes the large variety of world religions and is open to sharing and learning from them useful methods to benefit mankind.

Practicing modern styles of hatha yoga, such as Ashtanga vinyasa, Iyengar yoga, or indeed any other style that emphasizes asana practice, can provide great benefits for our Buddhist practice too: Daily asana practice trains our discipline and makes it easier for us to start a...

Introduction One of the most important principles in Tibetan Buddhism is dependent arising. Nothing exists or can happen on its own without being related to and relying on other factors. Moreover, everything arises from a complex of many causes and circumstances; nothing...