zhabs dkar tshogs drug rang grol (1781-1851) - A descriptive catalogue - Shechen Publications

This document contains the dates of slightly more than 1,300 spiritual masters and great scholars of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as a few dates of the Indian master and thinkers from other nations. I’ve assembled these historical data from my lectures for the sole purpose of compiling an easily accessible chronological compendium. This compilatio...

Buddhism refers to a religion, a philosophy, or a mediation-based practice founded in the fifth century B.C. by Siddhârta Gautama, the first historical Buddha. A journey on the path to enlightenment. 

Even if you are extremely beautiful, you cannot seduce death. If you are very powerful, you cannot hope to influence death. Even being incredibly wealthy cannot buy a few minutes more life. At present we cannot bear the small discomfort caused by a prickly thorn or the heat of the sun. What about the anguish we have to face at the time of death...

The Buddha is not venerated because devotees see him as a God and worship him, but rather because he's the ultimate teacher, the embodiment of enlightenment. The Sanskrit word Buddha means ‟the awakened one,” he who has realized the truth. In Tibetan, the word by which it's translated, Sang-gyé, has two syllables, sang meaning that he has ‟diss...

First of all, it's important to understand that what's called reincarnation in Buddhism has nothing to do with the transmigration of some ‟entity” like an autonomous "self". It's not a process of metempsychosis. As long as one thinks in terms of entities rather than function and continuity of experience, it's impossible to understand the Buddhi...

It's very important not to confuse serenity and apathy. One of the characteristics of a stable spiritual practice is not to be vulnerable to outer circumstances, whether favorable or unfavorable. The practitioner's mind is likened to a mountain that the winds can't shake; he's neither tormented by the difficulties he may come across nor elated ...

The thoughts of happiness and suffering, desire and aversion, Are none else than the clear voidness of mind. Without modifying whatever arises, Look at its nature, and it will manifest as great bliss. Now that you obtained this human existence, Focus all your energy on practicing the sublime Dharma. There is no way you can complete all your...

At first you should be driven by a fear of birth and death like a stag escaping from a trap. In the middle, you should have nothing to regret even if you die, like a farmer who has carefully worked his fields. In the end, you should feel relieved and happy, like a person who has just completed a formidable task. At first, you should know that...

Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpotché was one of the last masters from this generation of great lamas who completed their education and training in Tibet. He was one of the leading masters of the Nyingma tradition, and spent nearly 30 years of his life in retreat and meditation in order to profit from the vast teachings he’d received.  Rinpotché wrote man...

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the great Tibetan masters of the twentieth century, talks about the Buddhist concept of emptiness: When a rainbow appears vividly in the sky, you can see its beautiful colors, yet you could not wear it as clothing, or put it on as an ornament. It arises through the conjunction of various factors, but there is n...

When his mother dies, the remarkable nineteenth-century Tibetan yogi Shabkar sees the impermanence of all things, and the importance of practicing dharma: When they placed in my hands my mother's bones, I thought, ‟A ho! Things of this world really are nothing. In the past, my old mother, overwhelmed by affection and thinking of her only son...

Matthieu Ricard is a member of the Mind and Life Institute, an organization that advances the collaboration between modern science and Buddhism. He is a participant, both as a subject and as a collaborator, in research programs on the effects of meditation and mind training on the brain. He shares some thoughts on the topic: Is it possible fo...