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: As the tapes were not dated, the lecture dates are approximate.

Lecture 1: The Kopan Experience

• Not understanding karma, we suffer
• The experiences of the early Kopan students
• Dharma in Italy
• Attachment makes life so expensive
• We have no concept of “mother” in the womb
• We believe in the hallucination
• The mantras on Rinpoche’s car
• The object of anger does not exist
• Every time we hold on to the I as true we are creating ignorance
• Believing in the real face, attachment arises
• Dedication

Lecture 2: The Merely Imputed I

• Pervasive compounding suffering is samsara
• There is an I on this cushion but not on the aggregates
• The root of samsara according to the four schools
• The object of refutation for the Cittamatra school
• True existence is decorated on to the merely labeled I
• Practicing the mindfulness of emptiness in daily life
• The causal and resultant refuge in the refuge prayer
• The three causes of refuge
• Dedication
• The mindfulness of emptiness while sitting and at breaktime

Lecture 3: Actualizing the Path to Enlightenment

• Working only for this life, we are the same as the animals
• Buddha nature means we have the potential to become a buddha
• The story of Milarepa
• When our mind is clearer, we can see the buddhas
• Four people recite the Tara prayers (back to)
• There is no satisfaction with the eight worldly dharmas
• With this precious human rebirth, we can achieve any happiness
• The Dharma is universal
• The lung of the Heart of Wisdom Sutra and the Thirty-five Buddhas prayer: Motivation
• The lungs of the Heart Sutra and Thirty-five Buddhas
• To practice you must first analyze
• Dedications

Lecture 4: Refuge and Lay Vows

• Refuge ceremony motivation: The benefits of offering to the Buddha
• Never waste this human body
• Only with this human body can we do the body mandala practice
• The benefits of offering to the Buddha (back to)
• Refuge ceremony motivation: A Buddhist is an inner being
• The twelve links and the three realms
• The three types of suffering
• The suffering of the six realms
• Refuge ceremony
• The importance of taking the vows
• Dedication
• The four harmonious brothers
• Dedications (back to)

Lecture 5: Tara the Liberator

• Tara initiation motivation: About all the Dharma projects
• Tara initiation motivation: The guru is all the buddhas
• All problems come from self-cherishing
• Mistakes of not devoting to the guru are due to self-cherishing
• Lack of all success comes from self-cherishing
• Tara initiation motivation: Having stable guru devotion
• Tara initiation motivation: Tara and Atisha
• Tara initiation

Lecture 6: Purification Practices

• The oral transmission of the Praises to the Twenty-one Taras
• The oral transmission of the King of Prayers
• Vajrasattva initiation motivation: Purifying sexual misconduct
• Vajrasattva initiation motivation: Purifying covetousness
• Vajrasattva initiation motivation: The four opponent powers
• Dedications