The Gradual Path Blog
Lam Rim on the Road: Reflections on the Perfection of Generosity bodhichitta enlightenment essential nectar generosity paramitas perfections rachen nunnery service project tsum valley virtue Dec 04, 2021

Dharma teachings sometimes happen in mysterious ways, masquerading as everyday occurrences or through the behavior of unlikely characters. Several years ago, while working with marginalized populations, a patient taught me a treasured lesson. I was caught off guard when they handed me a package,...

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Bodhichitta - the Altruistic Intention to Awaken for the Benefit of Others | Step 23 altrusim bodhichitta compassion gradual awakening gradual path lam rim love renunciation Aug 08, 2021

Congratulations!

You’ve made it to the second milestone of the journey!

How is your memorization going?

Based on strong love and compassion for others, and the view of our interdependence, we want to help, but recognize our own limitations. How can we ultimately help others awaken from...

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Exchanging Self & Other | Step 22 of Awakening in 30 Steps asanga bodhichitta gradual awakening lam rim shantideva tonglen Aug 07, 2021

Get ready for an expresso shot!

I articulate Asanga’s ‘Seven Step Cause and Effect’ method for generating Bodhichitta and follow this up with Shantideva’s Four-points of Exchanging Self and Other” to show how Tsongkhapa stitched both methods together into his 11...

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Renunciation | Step 14 of Awakening in 30 Steps bodhichitta four mind turnings renunciation right view samsara Jul 27, 2021

Renunciation: Evolutionary Self-Care.

Congratulations on making it to the first milestone on our journey of awakening!

The gradual path is comprised of a series of reflections that step-by-step lead us to three major milestone or realizations:

1) Renunciation, the determination to be free.

2)...

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Shadow Work bodhichitta freud jung purification shadow shadow work spiritual bypass vajrasattva Aug 01, 2020

The spiritual seeker sees our oneness with all and interconnectivity but it's only the true student of the mind that understands that if we're all one, we're also one with the ugly bits. Dr. Miles Neale explains in this clip from Return with Elixir.


We said that for each of the preliminary...

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Curriculum of Compassion bodhichitta compassion emptiness guide to the bodhisattva's way of life pandemic shantideva Jul 28, 2020

What are the main building blocks of Buddhahood? There is both the body and the mind of the Buddha. The mind of the Buddha is the mind that realizes complete and utter interdependence or emptiness and the body of the Buddha is of a compassionate, sensitive, capable, skillful agent of change or...

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