Videos on Buddhism

In this short video Lama Jampa outlines what is meant by 'enlgihtenment' in Buddhism. "It's not possession of a certain number of facts or a certain set of opinions about the world, it's actually what results when we cut through all the projections and elaborations that we make about the nature of the world and the nature of the mind, and experience it in its actual, naked state."

Here Lama Jampa describes the understanding of cause and effect as described in the Buddhist teachings on karma. "So a truly virtuous action is one that is done, having overcome desire, hatred, and ignorance. So merely having the right intention and a kind of sentimental, approximate emotional way, does not mean it's a virtuous action. It must be one that is accompanied also by an absence of ignorance. We must very much understand that."

Lama Jampa gives a straightforward explanation of the Buddhist understanding of what happens when we die. "Simply the mind continues, because as we've discussed in previous times, the mind is a stream of awareness which is not generated from physical causes. And so although the, as it were, the hotel of the body collapses at the moment of death, collapses as a suitable kind of receptacle for the stream of consciousness, the stream of consciousness travels on."

In the first of this series of seven videos Lama Jampa Thaye describes 'Taking Refuge', the means by which one becomes a Buddhist. "Taking Refuge: Becoming a Buddhist "We need to connect with a source of protection, of strength. Ultimately, that protection strength comes from none other than the Buddha nature itself, our fundamental nature, the fundamental nature of reality. But from where we're at at the moment, that's not so possible to see or to connect with. So we make a connection with it through the Three Jewels because the Buddha is the one who himself awaken to this true nature of reality, and awaken which is possible for all of us."