I shall be speaking today about how to achieve a happy mind in the context of doing that using secular methods. Continue reading
At a fundamental level, as human beings, we are all the same; each one of us aspires to happiness and each one of us does not wish to suffer. Continue reading
Buddha-Nature, Day One of a Discourse on Uttaratantra
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Bodh Gaya, India, January 17, 1982 Translated by Alexander Berzin and revised, January 2008 Continue reading
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama: The Nature of the Mind
Nottingham, England, 24 May 2008.
Transcribed, translated in parts, and lightly edited by Alexander Berzin.
There’s the demarcation of sentient beings and non-sentient beings and, concerning sentient beings and mental activity in our daily lives, there are also different levels. When we are awake, when we dream and when we’re in deep sleep and then when we are unconscious – at each stage, there’s a deeper level of mind. Continue reading
The Definitions of “Good” and “Bad” or “Positive” and “Negative”
How do we deal with negative emotions? This is an important topic – one that brings up the question of what’s positive and what’s negative. Is there anything that’s absolutely negative or absolutely positive? I don’t really know. Everything is interdependent and everything has different aspects. Continue reading
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There is little agreement among Western scientists about the nature and function of mind, consciousness—or even about whether such a thing exists. Buddhism’s extensive explanations, however, stand firm after twenty-five centuries of philosophical debate and experiential validation. Here His Holiness the Dalai Lama explains the Buddhist concept of mind to the participants of a Mind Science symposium at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. |
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
One of the fundamental views in Buddhism is the principle of “dependent origination.” This states that all phenomena, both subjective experiences and external objects, come into existence in dependence upon causes and conditions; nothing comes into existence uncaused. Given this principle, it becomes crucial to understand what causality is and what types of cause there are. In Buddhist literature, two main categories of causation are mentioned:
external causes in the form of physical objects and events, and
internal causes such as cognitive and mental events. Continue reading