Buddha Weekly's Latest Features
What is Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryavatara? Interview Geshe Sherab: “Patience and Bodhicitta mind with elaborate reasoning and impeccable logic”
Scholar and teacher Geshe Serab, in an interview with Buddha Weekly, explains why Śāntideva's masterpiece Bodhicaryavatara — the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life — is a timeless and vastly important text for Mahayana Buddhists. Written around 700 AD in Sanskrit verse by the great Mahasiddha Śāntideva, it has become one...
BW Interview with Geshe Thubten Sherab: Skillfully Teaching Traditional Tibetan Buddhism for Western Students
Geshe Thubten Sherab, an accomplished and well respected teacher with FPMT, kindly agreed to a short interview with Buddha Weekly during a teaching visit to Lama Yeshe Ling in Ontario Canada. Although trained rigorously in monasteries, Geshe is known for his skillful approach to teaching in the west, emphasizing "the most important...
Losar: What’s in store for the Earth Sow (Female Pig, 2019) New Year? Planning for Lunar New Year should begin early
We could all use a little good fortune and happiness, and I don't think anyone would disagree that we universally hope the Year of the Earth Sow (Earth Female Pig 2019) will be much better than the outgoing Earth Dog (2018). The Earth Pig year, which begins on February 5, 2019, this...
Buddha on Dharma Prayer Wheels: “defilements will be purified and the face of the deity will appear”; Guru Rinpoche: you will “be able to attain mystic powers…”
It's unlikely you'll be levitating off the ground any time soon — even if you undertake millions or prayer wheel spins — so what did the great Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava mean when he wrote: you will "be able to attain mystic powers... eliminate immeasurable karmic obscurations" in teachings on Prayer Wheels? We...
Angry Wisdom: Yamantaka, the Destroyer of Death; Vajrabhairava, the wrathful Dharamapala Heruka manifestation of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom
Yamantaka and consort. For those who already have initiation. "When the tantric wrathful deity is understood and related to skillfully, it has the necessary qualities to be a catalyst of transformation. One deity that embodies the power to transform the destructive, agressive aspect of the Shadow is Yamantaka....
15 Miracles and 15 Days: Chotrul Duchen, the Day Buddha’s Great Miracles: Buddha, reluctant to use miraculous powers, displayed 15 miracles to help correct the errors of six prideful teachers
Miracles of Buddha, Part 2 The first moon of the New Year (Lunar) is Chotrul Cuchen (Chunga Choepa), the Day celebrating Buddha's Miracles — often celebrated with a butter lamp festival. The festival of Buddha's fifteen miracles actually begins on Losar (New Year), this year on February 5 (2019.) For 15 consecutive...
Miracles of Buddha: With the approach of Buddha’s 15 Days of Miracles, we celebrate 15 separate miracles of Buddha, starting with Ratana Sutta: Buddha purifies pestilence.
Buddha often told his followers to ignore miraculous powers, to avoid attachments and ego issues, yet each year we celebrate Chotrul Duchen (Chunga Choepa), the 15 Days of Buddha's Miracles. For the first 15 days of the New Lunar Year, we commemorate the miraculous — the 15-day display of miracles by the...
Sutra on the Eight Realizations: one of the most important suttas; contains the 11 essential subjects for meditation
The vital importance of awareness of impermanence, the nature of suffering, attachment, dissatisfaction, ignorance and laziness are emphasized by the Buddha in the short Sutra on the Eight Realizations (full translation below with some of the commentary by Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh.) The Sutra on the Eight Realizations is one of the...
Buddha teaches the Nadi Sutta: overcoming the assumptions of self with the River Sutra; the river of Samsara cannot be escaped by clinging to the notion of an “abiding self”
One of the shorter sutras, the Nadi Sutta, teaches us that if we believe in an "abiding self" (or soul) we are like "a man swept away by the current" who "would grab hold of kasha grasses, but they would tear away, and so from that cause he would come to disaster."...
Palden Lhamo, the Terrifying Enlightened Emanation of Tara, Drives Off Your Inner and Outer Demons and Obstacles
Palden Lhamo, the ferocious yet motherly Buddhist protector, brings to mind the character Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), decked out in a robotic loader in the movie Aliens, confronting the massive acid-drooling demon-alien and snarling: "Let go of her!" Bam — angry, protective mother Ripley drives away the terrible demon. In a separate feature...
Buddha the first consciousness scientist? Science only now beginning to explore what Buddha taught 2500 years ago? Full excerpt from Surangama Sutra
More than 2500 years ago, Buddha taught core beliefs that are only today being proven or explored by science, notably dependent arising, and the true nature of consciousness. Now, with the rising popularity of consciousness studies in science — an exciting area of study — Buddha's words are being re-examined. It was...
Magnetize me: working with the magnetizing activity deities of the Padma Buddha family: Amitabha, Chenrezig, Hayagriva, Vajrayogini, Vajradharma
Many Buddhists are attracted (magnetized) to the charismatic emanations of Enlightenment of the Padma family: Amitabha, Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), Hayagriva, Vajrayogini or Vajravarahi, Kurukulla, Vajradharma and others. It seems natural and instinctive — the nature of the magnetic personas of these great beings. All of these can be thought of, as emanations of...
