These selected essential topics  help to create a foundation for understanding and traveling the Three-Yana path of Tibetan Buddhism.

Tsewa: The Tender Heart of Enlightenment

We know when our heart is open and when it is closed. We’ve tasted the warmth and freedom of that open heart and suffered with tightness and coldness when it is not. In his book, Training in Tenderness: The Radical Openness of Heart that Can Change the World, Rinpoche introduces the notion of tsewa, a warmth and openness of heart that all sentient beings are capable of; in fact tsewa is naturally present at the core of our being. In this series of videos drawn from a conversation with Pema Chodron, Rinpoche delves deeply into the many dimensions of this simple insight. Watch.

Patience

Everyone can reap the benefits of having more patience. And that’s not just a maxim: there is a practical way to increase our patience through the Buddhist teachings. Read and watch more.

Shenpa: The Visceral Experience of Ego-Clinging

In Buddhism we speak a lot about the false belief in an ego or self and how clinging to that self creates suffering. Sometimes this notion of clinging to the self may seem abstract. What does it feel like when we cling to the self? It is important to be able to identify that experience. The raw, visceral experience of self-clinging and the suffering it produces is known as shenpa in Tibetan. Read and Watch more.

The Five Skandhas

We may have never asked ourselves, “what does our experience consist of?” An examination of the aspects of our experience, known in the Buddhist Abhidarma teachings as the Five Skandhas (or “heaps”) is central to the analysis that leads to an understanding of selflessness.  Learn more.