Theme

Dependent Origination

Paticca-samuppada — the twelve-linked formula by which suffering arises and ceases. The Buddha called it the heart of his teaching.

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Knowledge

A Bhavacakra (Wheel of Life) mural held in the jaws and claws of Yama, painted on a monastery wall

Core Teachings

Dependent Origination

The twelvefold chain by which ignorance gives rise to suffering, and the principle that nothing arises independently. The deepest of the Buddha's teachings, and the heart of the Madhyamaka analysis of emptiness.

ConceptsMahayana

Interdependence

The Mahayana reading of dependent origination as the universal property of every phenomenon: that no thing whatsoever stands alone, that everything is in everything, and that this is not metaphor but the most exact description of reality the dharma has produced.

Gandharan relief of the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath

Core Teachings

The Four Noble Truths

The Buddha's first teaching after awakening — delivered at Sarnath to the five ascetics — laid out the diagnosis of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path that leads beyond it. Every later teaching is a commentary on these four.

Gilt bronze image of Nāgārjuna, teacher and philosopher of emptiness

ConceptsMahayana

Sunyata

Emptiness is the absence in all phenomena of independent, intrinsic existence. It is not nothingness but the positive recognition that everything arises in dependence on other things — the deepest reading of the Buddha's teaching.

Teachings

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

Bodhi Sambad — A Dialogue

A studio dialogue covering the meeting of Buddhism with modernity — film, politics, gender, the survival of monastic culture. Rinpoche's voice as a public teacher, restated for a contemporary Nepali audience.

HH 41st Sakya Gongma Trichen Rinpoche

Sakya Monlam 2024 — Day 2

The second day of the Sakya Monlam at Lumbini. The continuation of the prayers for peace, conducted by the assembly of the Sakya tradition.

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Awakening9 Compassion14 Concentration4 Death8 Devotion7 Doubt2 Effort3 Emptiness10