Buddhist Academic Guides

Asanga and Yogacara: A Guide for Readers

Asanga and Yogacara: A Guide for Readers

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 [...]
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Ego and Personality

Ego and Personality

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 [...]
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Steven D. Goodman

Steven D. Goodman

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 [...]
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The Human Situation

The Human Situation

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 [...]
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Free Downloads from The Core Teachings of the Dalai Lama Series

Free Downloads from The Core Teachings of the Dalai Lama Series

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 [...]
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Brain Control of Sleeping and Dreaming States | An Excerpt from Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience

Brain Control of Sleeping and Dreaming States | An Excerpt from Where Buddhism Meets Neuroscience

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 [...]
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The Future of Religion: A Reader’s Guide

The Future of Religion: A Reader’s Guide

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 [...]
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The Emphasis of the Gelug Tradition in Western Scholarship on Madhyamaka

The Emphasis of the Gelug Tradition in Western Scholarship on Madhyamaka

While its no longer true in many universities, the presentation of Tibetan Buddhism in western academia—and the books that came out of it—was heavily skewed towards the Gelug philosophical view and its traditions. There are various reasons for this, but the following from the Translator's Introduction of the Padmakara Translation Group's The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön [...]
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The Levels of Study of the Karma Kagyu at Larung Gar

The Levels of Study of the Karma Kagyu at Larung Gar

We were very pleased to host a talk with Khenpo Jamyang of Larung Gar in Golok on Monday, April 18th, 2016 who discussed  the Kagyu curriculum at the largest center of Buddhist study and practice in the world. Below is a list of the texts that Khenpo discussed and the available English translations.  Most of [...]
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The Seventeen Panditas of Indian Buddhism

The Seventeen Panditas of Indian Buddhism

Image from http://www.rigpashedra.org/   His Holiness the Dalai Lama has often said that Tibetan Buddhism is none other than the Buddhism of India in the tradition of Nalanda, the great center of Buddhist learning that was located in present-day Bihar, India. Many of the greatest masters and scholars in Indian Buddhism resided-and often presided-at this [...]
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Nagarjuna as Described by Buton

Nagarjuna as Described by Buton

From Butön's History of Buddhism in India and Its Spread to Tibet Four hundred years after the Buddha passed away, in the southern country of Vidarbha, there lived a prosperous Brahmin who was childless. In a dream, gods foretold that if he invited one hundred Brahmins to a religious festival, a son would be born [...]
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