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Tibetan Buddhism blog posts

I’m a Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhist since August 2011. These are my blogposts on the tradition and what it means for the spiritual path to Enlightenment, or becoming a Buddha. Central in the tradition is the Bodhisattva ideal: the realization that release from suffering doesn’t mean anything if we don’t also help all other sentient beings become free as well.

Our experienced reality – aka Buddhism and The Secret

Ever since I started teaching the topic of Buddhist Philosophy about ten years ago, I’ve used the Law of Attraction (aka The Secret) to explain the Chittamatrin view (*). However, there are important differences and that’s basically what this post is about. Let’s start with the Dhammapada quote that is usually used to claim that [...]

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Guru yoga, freedom of belief, women’s rights, compassion

I’m doing something in this post I haven’t done in a while: share stuff I’ve been inspired by that you may not have seen if you don’t follow me on twitter or facebook. Not that I’m very active on the latter, however my tweets get sent there automatically. Guru yoga is a rather tough aspect [...]

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The 3 basics of the path: ethics, concentration and wisdom

Buddhists are good at lists. Tibetan Buddhists, the Gelugpa school perhaps especially, have made them into a sort of art form. The Lam Rim is a long list of lists, in fact. In my daily meditations I’m working with Thubten Chodron’s Guided meditations on the Stages of the Path. She has divided the Lam Rim [...]

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Ritual as part of a spiritual practice: Tibetan Buddhism

Over the past year I’ve gained some experience at (Gelugpa Tibetan) Buddhist ritual. As a born agnostic from a protestant background rituals don’t sit very well with me. In fact, before hand I was planning to select the Buddhist lineage in part on the amount of ritual it involved. Funnily enough I ended up with [...]

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Giving yourself permission to rejoice in what’s good…

In the Discovering Buddhism program it’s often repeated that we should regret our bad actions, words and thoughts, but that we can also rejoice in what’s good. Rejoicing is not a part of our Western Culture, especially Dutch culture. The Dutch are very good at complaining, my mom even suspects that this is one of [...]

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Becoming awake for others: Bodhicitta or the Bodhisattva Motivation

It’s time to blog about what they call in Tibetan Buddhism the ‘large scope’ in the Lam Rim. On one level this scope is the only one which we, as Westerners can relate to: it’s all about universal and impartial love. We can think of Christ, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and the Dalai [...]

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No more reincarnation… intermediate scope motivation in Mahayana Buddhism

The Path to Enlightenment, the Lam Rim in Tibetan Buddhism, is divided in three ‘stages’ or three motivations. I started out my explaining the Beginners Motivation. It is, as Lodro Rinzler says in his upcoming ‘The Buddha Walks into a Bar: A Guide to Life for a New Generation‘: a process of getting your act [...]

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My Buddhism for today, why I choose only ONE lineage…

As I’ve noted before, on my Dutch blog people respond very critically. This is often annoying, but they also sometimes ask great questions. The question asked in this case was: doesn’t your present path contradict your earlier assertion that we need to balance certainty and uncertainty? The answer is – as it often is – [...]

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Tibetan Buddhism and Lam Rim

I was on a Tibetan Buddhist (FPMT) retreat for half of August, so what I was able to share with you all since then was mostly inspired by that tradition. I wrote one book review: When the chocolate runs out, Lama Yeshe. I’ve become a big Lama Yeshe fan, in fact.  For All Considering I wrote [...]

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Gratitude meditation – thanking our teachers

I’ve written about gratitude before, but I think the topic merits a revisit. For one thing: in our culture we’re taught, by psychologists, to face up to the negative things our parents and teachers did to us as we grew up. Facing up to our emotions, including the negative, is a good thing no doubt. [...]

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