Time and the Universe

Introduction The past, the present, and the future are important topics to study on the Buddhist path. This is because, for the purification of karma, it is helpful to understand the nature of past destructive actions that we have committed and their future karmic results....

Introduction  We are going to begin our discussion of Buddhist metaphysics. This is a large topic that covers an enormous amount of material, and all of this material is quite difficult; it is very complex, with many, many different items involved. However, I think the...

The Relevance of the Topic of Time Time (dus, Skt. kala) and such topics within the category of time like the past, the present, and the future are very important topics to study when we are on the Buddhist path. They’re not just metaphysically interesting, but they are...

Introducing the Three Different Types of Dharma In general, the Dharma teachings can be divided into the Hinayana and the Mahayana teachings. The word “dharma” means “something that holds its own self-nature.” To think of dharmas as being anything that takes or holds anything...

The Two Truths To develop a bodhichitta aim, the first thing that we need to know and be clear about is to have some idea of what bodhichitta is. There are actually two aspects of bodhichitta and this is in accordance with the two truths. The two truths about anything are the...

[Clarification of His Holiness' answers by Dr. Berzin are included within square brackets.] Relation between Westerners and Kalachakra Dr. Berzin: Do Westerners have a special relation with Kalachakra? His Holiness: I wonder, do they really have one? In general, the...

Formulation of the Topic for Analysis We’ve seen that a temporal interval is what we’re speaking about in Buddhism when we speak about time, an interval between the occurrence of a cause and the occurrence of an effect. And what is most common that everybody accepts is that...

Are There Common-Locus Objects Extending over the Three Times? Consider the location of a presently-happening object, such as the “presently-happening-yoghurt in the pot.” For ease of discussion, let us refer to “yoghurt in the pot” simply as “yoghurt.” Both the...

Karma: Neither Deterministic nor Predetermined We’ve been discussing karma, and we saw that there are various systems with which karma is explained. However, what we are speaking about when we talk about karma is our compulsive behavior, what brings on our compulsive behavior,...

Further Background Material Range of the Analysis Since the issue of free will versus determinism hinges on the understanding of “ not-yet-happenings,” let us focus our analysis, for the moment, primarily on them. Moreover, let us limit our discussion to the Gelug Prasangika...