Theme

Rebirth

The continuity of becoming across deaths, driven by craving and karma. Not the transmigration of a soul but the conditioning of the next moment by this one.

Knowledge4

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Teachings2

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Knowledge

A traditional Bhavacakra wall mural showing Yama holding the wheel of life, with the six realms of rebirth and the Buddha pointing the way out

Core Teachings

Karma and Rebirth

Karma, in the Buddha's usage, is volitional action — and the law that intentional acts of body, speech, and mind carry consequences that ripen in this life or the next. Rebirth is the continuation of the stream of consciousness driven by craving and clinging.

Antique ink drawing of the Bhavacakra — the Wheel of Life — held by Yama, Lord of Death, from the Wellcome Collection

Concepts

Samsara

The beginningless round of birth, aging, death, and rebirth, driven by ignorance and craving. Samsara is the predicament from which the dharma offers release.

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.

ConceptsVajrayana

The Bardo

In Tibetan Buddhism, the bardo is the intermediate state between death and the next rebirth — but more broadly, any transitional state. The Bardo Thödol maps these states as terrains of practice and recognition.

Teachings

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

Dharma Discourse — Session II

A continuation of the Ka-Nying teaching series. Rinpoche on the meeting of view and conduct in everyday practice.

dhammapada

The Dhammapada in Daily Life — Episode 05

The fifth episode. A verse on heedfulness — the quality the Buddha names as the path to the deathless.

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Awakening9 Compassion14 Concentration4 Death8 Dependent Origination6 Devotion7 Doubt2 Effort3