The Index Page provides an outline of the topics discussed in each of the lectures. Click on the links below to go directly to a particular lecture.

Please note: Because the tapes were undated and not broken into different teachings, the lecture numbers and dates are approximations.

Lecture 1: Universal Responsibility

• The need to transform the mind
• Our universal responsibility

Lecture 2: Transforming Problems

• Looking for a problem, we cannot find it
• We see impermanent phenomena as permanent and believe it
• All phenomena are merely labeled
• Learning to see problems as beneficial
• I am one, others are countless

Lecture 3: Suffering and Its Cause

• The suffering of samsara
• The three types of suffering
• The cause of samsara
• We need to understand there is a greater happiness
• Only when we are enlightened can we be the perfect guide
• The paths of the lower and middle capable beings
• The path of the higher capable being

Lecture 4: Tonglen Practice

• Concentration also needs ethics
• Tonglen: Making charity to all beings
• The wish-granting jewel and karma
• Tonglen: Give all the suffering to the self-cherishing thought
• We can’t even find the merely labeled I, let alone the hallucinated I
• The dictatorship of the self-cherishing thought
• Attached to this life’s happiness, we are no different from animals

Lecture 5: All Happiness Comes from Others

• Knowing what is Dharma and what is not
• Eight Mahayana precepts motivation
• Precepts motivation: Nothing harms like the self-cherishing thought
• Precepts motivation: All happiness comes from others
• Taking the eight Mahayana precepts
• Emptiness and the phenomena that are empty
• The emptiness of the tea
• Prasangika’s object of refutation
• Where is the tea?

Lecture 6: Tonglen Practice (Continued)

• More tonglen
• Make every action Dharma
• Avert delusions as soon as they arise
• Practicing Dharma is the most important education
• Emptiness of the E
• We suffer when our ego doesn’t get what it wants
• We can only practice patience with those who harm us

Lecture 7: How Things Exist

• The base is not the label
• There is no E on the design, no tea in the liquid
• Searching for the table
• The importance of recognizing the object of refutation
• The middle way between the two extremes
• Phenomena, harm—everything comes from the mind
• Recognizing the hallucinations as a hallucination
• Only emptiness can cut the root of samsara

Lecture 8: Emptiness Meditation

• Before we label a sound, we must hear it
• In and out of meditation recognize the hallucination as a hallucination
• Using criticism to realize emptiness
• A meditation on emptiness
• When we don’t label “problem” there is no problem
• Meditation on emptiness like space
• Meditating on emptiness like space during break times
• The truly existing I appears due to past negative imprints
• The twelve links and consciousness
• Our aggregates derive from karma and delusion
• We are the creator of our own world

Lecture 9: Mindfulness of Reality

• Meditating on reality is the antidote to samsara
• Impermanence and death
• Not understanding reality, sentient beings suffer
• Blaming the parents who are so precious
• Drugs and awakening the mind
• Overcoming karmic obscurations
• Believing in one life and fearing death
• We need to understand the mind to see how others are suffering

Lecture 10: Only Work for Others

• Develop the two bodhicittas and the five powers
• The main goal in life is to benefit others
• Geshe Rabten and Gen Jampa Wangdu
• Like the Buddha, only work for others
• Experiencing problems for others

Lecture 11: Understanding Karma

• We need to know that everything comes from the mind
• Understanding karma is the foundation for preliminary practices
• Positive and negative karmic results
• The meaning of “root guru”
• The guru is the merit field
• The four results of stealing
• Repaying the karmic debt
• The need to purify and take vows

Lecture 12: The Essence of Dharma

• Base and label and the queen of the Netherlands
• The three criteria for an object to exist
• Dying with the five powers
• Rinpoche almost drowns
• The mind at the time of death
• The two practices: Not harming and benefiting
• Following these two practices is the essence of the Dharma

Lecture 13: Eight Benefits of Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga

• Oral transmission of the Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga
• Dedications

Lecture 14: Karma and the Four Results of Nonvirtuous Actions

• Meditating on subtle dependent arising
• Accumulating merit with holy objects
• The four results of sexual misconduct
• The importance of taking vows
• Unless we transform our mind there will always be problems
• Living in morality is the best contribution to world peace
• The importance of the meditation center and the teacher
• Without transforming the mind, we need to be healed again and again
• The results of the ten nonvirtues and the ten virtues: The four results of lying
• The four results of abstaining from sexual misconduct
• The four results of slandering and of not slandering
• The four results of speaking harsh words and abstaining from harsh words
• The four results of gossiping and abstaining from gossiping
• The four results of covetousness and abstaining from covetousness
• The four results of ill will and abstaining from ill will
• The four results of heresy and abstaining from heresy

Lecture 15: The Four Opponent Powers

• Vajrasattva initiation motivation: The four opponent powers
• Dedications