Analysis is Essential on the Spiritual Path To make the Buddhist path our own, we must analyze what we are told. Passively accepting statements at face value will not take us very far. Analyzing means using our intelligence to determine what makes sense and what doesn’t. As in our everyday lives, analysis is essential on…
Read More

Watching the Mind is the True Dharma Developing a sense of equality for “my” needs and “other people’s” needs is the first step toward developing precious bodhimind. Watching the mind will help avoid the push and pull of attached love and hate. This is the true dharma. Audio Only

Bringing Precious Bodhimind into Focus Developing unconditioned love and compassion for all sentient beings may seem an impossible task given the force of our negative attachments and habitual self-cherishing. Yet by first focusing our meditation on those nearest and dearest to us, a taste of the possibility of precious bodhimind can become a reality in…
Read More

The Path to Bodhimind Developing bodhimind is one of the supreme goals of Mahayana Buddhism. Achieving this unparalleled state of love and compassion requires an extraordinary and sustained Audio Only

Motivation: the Key to Practice Buddhist practice begins with motivation. Setting a positive motivation makes a huge difference in our effectiveness in helping ourselves and others. Our motivation is a measure against which we can assess the quality of our thoughts and actions and our progress along the path. Audio Only

Finding the Path of Practical Buddhism Suffering is within us and all around us. Yet Buddhism speaks of the joy that has never known suffering. What is this joy and how do we best direct our motivation toward achieving it? Audio Only

Four Noble Truths Summary This talk sums up the Four Noble Truths all together, with more focus on suffering of death and how to die well and help others die well. At least have some faith in guru, buddha, yidam or any pure being you believe in. Next best, go beyond attachment and hatred, able…
Read More

Causes and Conditions: Criteria of the Second Noble Truth Meditation helps health, and so does modern medicine. Use both wisely to overcome pain and addictions and their causes. We ourselves ultimately create these for ourselves. You can use White Tara to be healthy, but when death comes, switch to ask her to help with the…
Read More

4 characteristics of the First Noble Truth Impermanence, suffering, emptiness and selflessness are the four characteristics of the Truth of Suffering. Knowing impermanence forces us to confront our priorities in life and to choose virtue over non-virtue. Suffering is our reality of contaminated existence. Emptiness means in this case that everything is based on causes…
Read More

Karma and continuation of life Suffering and joy has a lot to do with what our mind projects, depending on our perceptions and causes and conditions. Together that becomes karma. Karmic consequences produce our suffering and joy. Karmic imprints follow us into future lives, our stream of consciousness is a continuation of discontinuity carrying karmic…
Read More