Teaching Excerpts

Pure Motivation

Whatever aspects of the teachings we practice, the only point of practicing is to tame our three poisons, to tame our kleshas. Therefore, if dharma practice is effective there should be some evidence of a […]

Teaching Excerpts

Open-ended Confession

We certainly need to purify all of our wrongdoing and obscurations. And, in order to be inspired to purify them, we need to be aware of the fact that we are obscured. Now all of […]

Teaching Excerpts

It All Comes Down to Benevolence

No matter how much may be said about bodhichitta, and how much we may know about it and learn about it, it all comes down to benevolence, benevolence towards others. If we are benevolent toward […]

Teaching Excerpts

Serving the Buddha’s Teachings

By this twenty-first century, regardless of what part of this planet we live in, whether we live in the East or the West, we have opportunity to encounter the Buddha’s teachings. In fact, at this […]

Teaching Excerpts

Dissolve the Attitude That Things Exist

Now in this practice [the White Khechari], as is in many of our practices, there’s the notion when we say the svabhava mantra that the things dissolve into emptiness as though they were substantially existent, […]

Teaching Excerpts

Pure Appearances

We are not attempting to change the nature of appearances from impure to pure. Appearances of themselves have always been pure. We have always been Samantabhadra; we have always been White Tara. We’re not trying […]

Teaching Excerpts

See the Nature of Thoughts

While a thought is present, look directly at it. See its nature. It is “thoughts” that have cast us into, and keep us in, samsara. But it is through the recognition of the nature of […]

Teaching Excerpts

Rebirth in Sukhavati Helps Others

It’s much easier to be reborn in Sukhavati than in any other pure realm. This is because of Buddha Amitabha’s special aspiration that it be so. The fundamental cause of rebirth in Sukhavati is to […]

Teaching Excerpts

Discover Your True Nature Through Faith

Another thing about the activity or manifestation of buddhas is that because it is nonconceptual and spontaneous, not only does it never fail, not only is it without delay, but it is never inappropriate. It […]

Teaching Excerpts

Relax In Your Kleshas

In the great perfection teachings it’s often said, “The more thoughts and kleshas that arise, the more wisdom will arise.” The reason for this is that if you have gained some stability in awareness, the […]