I want to share some background in preparation for our classes on the Paramitas–especially the last two, Meditation and Wisdom. I found that Tsongkapa in one of his many lamrims, the Middle-Length Treatise on the...
Kamalashila (740-795) Kamalashila was a great Indian scholar and the main disciple of the Abbot of Nalanda Monastery, Shantarakshita. Shantarakshita (725-788) is considered the last of the great Indian Buddhist scholars...
Our ZOOM discussion on February 18 finished Lesson 4 and began Lesson 5, continuing our study of the three types of prajna from DCB21 on the components of the title of Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart...
The concentrated mind understands reality as it is.Shakyamuni Buddha as quoted in Monk Kamalashila’s The Progress of Meditation: The Three Bhavanakramas, p. 111.
If one discerns selflessness (nairatmya) of phenomena, And, if having examined those, one should meditate on that, He has attained the cause for the result of Nirvana. Anything else is not a cause for serenity.” King of...
Yesterday we discussed the middle-view state and how to avoid the “two frightening extremes” of existence and non-existence. We also considered what the rainbow body was and how to achieve it and other topics. Next...
The Elephant Path of Mental Abiding. This image illustrates the nine stages of mental abiding that happen as one progresses in one’s meditation by showing a wild black elephant symbolizing our wild monkey-mind we start...
Bronze statue of Je Tsongkapa. As I was developing the second lesson in C41-Three Principal Stages & Paths of Buddhist Practice, I realized a major omission. Je Tsongkapa included a basic introduction into...
Our Saturday morning discussion with LFBCS students began a bit differently this week. Everyone present shared their understanding of what was meant by the phrase “Shifting the Mind,” a practice introduced in H.H. Dorje...
. . . dhyana entails abiding imperturbably in our dharma-nature of true emptiness, yet not being attached to such emptiness. Only that can be called true dhyana.” Imparting the Absolute Truth through the Heart...