Asanga Learn More A Reader's Guide to the great 4th century Indian master Asanga and Yogacara: A Guide for Readers See Also:  Profiles of early Indian Mahayana figures | Tibetan Masters of the 8th Century | Tibetan Masters of the 10th-11th Centuries Nagarjuna | Aryadeva | Asanga | Shantideva | Xuanzang | The Seventeen Pandits [...]

Abhidharma Teachings on Not-Self An excerpt from The Buddhist Psychology of Awakening Obsessive Fixity The Buddhist meaning of the word atman is “obsessive fixity.” Now you might ask, “What does this have to do with the famous ego?” Let’s explore how this famous self and ego as a “good guy” or a “bad guy” is [...]

We learned yesterday, August 3rd, 2020, that our author and friend Steven Goodman passed away after a long illness. I first met Steven in the 1990s when Kyabje Thinley Norbu Rinpoche introduced us and said to me, "Steven is not an ordinary scholar, he is very special" and went on to extoll his genuine connection [...]

Offering of Practice An Excerpt from Refining Gold The Third Dalai Lama At this point the question may arise: “If one should try to rely upon a spiritual master who points out the path to enlightenment and should try to please the master by making the offering of practicing his or her teachings, what exactly [...]

Sign up for a week of essential teachings from His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama ENTER YOUR EMAIL TO RECEIVE A WEEK OF DAILY READINGS FROM THE CORE TEACHINGS OF THE DALAI LAMA SERIES. From proper posture in sitting meditation to discussion of past lives to the importance of the Three Jewels, these readings cover [...]

Shabkar Elucidates the Essentials of Spiritual Practice The Emanated Scripture of Manjushri includes twenty-three pieces of advice from Shabkar (1781–1851), teacher both of the Mind-Training and the Dzogchen traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. In this work, Shabkar shares what he believes to be the essentials of spiritual practice. In this particular section, Shabkar illuminates the importance of retreat [...]

The Universe and Beings An Excerpt from Finding Rest in Illusion This excerpt provides commentary on the second vajra point in Finding Rest in Illusion, the third book in the Trilogy of Rest. The character of illusion is applied to the entire phenomenal field of both samsara and nirvana. The second vajra point explains that we [...]

The Science of Sleep Allan Hobson, MD Neuroscience and Tibetan Buddhism have both devoted a great deal of attention to sleep and dream states, and there is a clear overlap of interests in this area. In fact, the topic generated so much interest on both sides that it was to become the focus of the [...]

In the world of religion, some things stay the same, while many are constantly adapting to meet our new world of the internet and cell phones, scientific discovery, increasing awareness of gender and race dynamics, multiculturalism, the numbers of people identifying their religion as “none” or “spiritual but not religious,” and so much more. We [...]

Rejecting the Idea of Gender Roles The Prison of Gender Roles What “it” has a greater hold on people’s imaginations or limits them more than ideas about what biological sex must mean, what I call “the prison of gender roles”? Almost all conventional people—often called “ordinary worldlings” in Buddhist texts—as well as many Buddhists hold [...]