The Double Dorje: Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.18 Dec 2024

Emptiness. Or nothing?

Emptiness (shunyata, or tongpa in Tibetan) is an utterly core theme in Buddhist teaching. When we first hear about it, we usually don’t have much idea what it’s about at all. We may mistake it for some kind of void, or a teaching that nothing matters because “everything is empty”. Can we get a handle on it without years of study?

Words or phrases you might want to look up:

Perfection of Wisdom
Shunyata (spellings in English vary)
Prajnaparamita (spellings in English vary)
Skandhas
William Dalrymple - “From the Holy Mountain”
Tetralemma
Vajra slivers
Prajñaparamita (sutras)
Tathagata
Edward Conze
Manjushri

I noticed that the language of Conze's translations that I quoted is gendered in a way we would probably not be comfortable with these days. Do remember that he was working on these materials in the middle of the last century.

#Buddhism #Vajrayana #DoubleDorje #Emptiness #Shunyata #Prajnaparamita

Prajnaparamita as the Mother of all the Buddhas

And I forgot to mention in the podcast itself, none other than...

Nagarjuna

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Avsnitt(63)

Interpreting done well. Or not.

When Buddhist teachers give teachings to westerners, live interpreting into the main language of the locale is often crucial. It can be done well. But sometimes it is done badly. Here are some of the ...

11 Sep 15min

Farewell to Lama Lodro

After a masterpiece of a life, Lama Lodro finally left us at the age of 100. #Lama #Lodro #eulogy #Tibetan #Buddhism #Edgbaston

16 Aug 17min

SXE04 Guru devotion and scandals

There have been a depressing number of scandals in major Tibetan Buddhist organizations, particularly (though not only) in the West. It clearly has systemic roots - can the disease be identified? PS. ...

19 Apr 13min

Tsopema Nuns

The podcast will have to take a back seat for some months as I work on a project aimed at publishing biographies of a few of the nuns, and the sometimes heroic journeys they undertook to arrive at the...

21 Feb 2min

Buddhist retreat - but why?

"To get enlightened" is such a watery explanation. Mindfulness largely misses the point. This was a retreat about a specific deity. Whatever that is! #Tibetan #Buddhism #Vajrayana #Retreat

31 Jan 9min

Vajrayana is like Mormonism???

Really intended as a brief video on YouTube. Is the Vajrayana "just" a clever technique within conventional Mahayana, or is it really something different.

3 Jan 11min