23 results for

Asanga

The Realized Asanga on Higher Protection, Part One (2016, Arizona)

In this series of classes, Geshe Michael dives deeper into the subject of protection using a famous book called The Necklace of Understanding (Abhisamayalankara), which was revealed by Maitreya to Arya Asanga, in which he teaches about what it means to take refuge by covering the following three topics: 1. What it means to go for refuge, 2. Where you go for refuge (The Three Jewels), and 3. The Four Bodies of a Buddha.
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22 Metaphors for Bodhichitta: A Special Class (2022, Arizona)

The 22 levels from earth to sky refer to the development of the Wish for Budhahood (Bodhichitta), from the initial intention in a baby Bodhisattva to the full Bodhichitta in the mind of a Buddha. This list of 22 comes from the Ornament of Realizations (Abhisamayalankara) by Arya Asanga which is one of the Five Great Books of Maitreya—The Future Buddha. They were taught by Maitreya to Arya Asanga in Maitreya’s heaven and then he brought them back to this world.
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Idea Images – From Earth to Sky: 22 levels of Bodhichitta from the Abhisamayalankara (Beijing, 2016)

The 22 levels from earth to sky refer to the development of the Wish for Budhahood (Bodhichitta), from the initial intention in a baby Bodhisattva to the full Bodhichitta in the mind of a Buddha. This list of 22 comes from the Ornament of Realizations (Abhisamayalankara) by Arya Asanga which is one of the Five Great Books of Maitreya—The Future Buddha. They were taught by Maitreya to Arya Asanga in Maitreya’s heaven and then he brought them back to this world.
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Lower Middle Way – An Analysis of Dependence: All Things Depend on Each Other: The Buddhist Teaching of the Wheel of Life

Around 1000 AD, 1500 years after the time of the Buddha, the Tibetans undertook a monumental task: to translate thousands of pages of Buddhist literature from Sanskrit into Tibetan. It took them 700 years to complete translations of the kangyur (the word of the Buddha) and the tengyur (the Indian commentaries). Now, as Buddhism has been making a big push westward, Geshe Michael’s aim is to complete an even larger task: to translate hundreds of thousands of pages of Buddhist literature into modern languages.
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Master Kamalashila: Meditations on the Diamond Cutter Sutra, Part Two (Arizona, 2016)

This is the second in a four-part series based on Master Kamalashila’s commentary on the Diamond Cutter Sutra led by Geshe Michael Roach. This retreat provided a unique opportunity to delve deeply into rarely taught meditations on emptiness. The retreat consisted of morning sessions led by Geshe Michael Roach followed by individual practice in the student's private retreat cabin.
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Geshe Michael Roach

Essays to Answer Questions from My Friends

Friends of mine have asked me to write some details about my life, partly to clarify information which appears online or in the press about me as my teachings become more prominent around the world, and partly because one of my Tibetan lamas has asked some of my students to write a biography about myself. These friends have been pestering me for some years—but I felt hesitant to respond, since it seemed a pretty self-centered thing to do. But as it may be helpful to my students and friends, I have decided to relent.
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Chakras and energy channels

Great Retreat Teachings, Part 1: The Winds of Meditation (2011, Bowie)

The great meditation classics of India and Tibet describe a special type of prana, or inner wind, which we can learn to direct through our body in order to bring our mind out of this subtle wandering and return it to sharp, single-pointed focus. In these four days of teaching at Diamond Mountain Retreat Center, Geshe Michael Roach will take us on an exploration through the nature of these subtle meditation obstacles, and inner techniques to overcome them by moving the prana through our channels and chakras.
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Real Protection: The Higher Goal of Yoga (2005, Tucson)

TThere is a very famous idea in Buddhism, and also in the yoga traditions, which means to go for refuge—to go for shelter or to seek protection. In this short talk Geshe Michael Roach discusses this idea of real, or ultimate protection, specifically in the context of the deeper goals of Yoga.
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The Principles of Yoga: The Four Gifts, Getting Them To Come Back

If any person does yoga on a modest, daily basis, then they will inevitably attain the extraordinary benefits of yoga. And so the question for us, as teachers, is simply getting students coming back to the studio. About sixteen centuries ago, the Indian sage Master Asanga—in his book called The Jewel of the Sutras—described four gifts that we give our students, so that they do come back for their practice.
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The Ultimate Answer on Death (1999, San Francisco)

What is death? Most of us live our entire lives in fear and with a very limited understanding of this seemingly inevitable endpoint looming somewhere on the horizon. What happens after we die? In this one-night lecture given by Geshe Michael Roach on September 7, 1999 he clarifies what death is from a Buddhist perspective. He explores the core Buddhist ideas of emptiness and karma, and how they are crucial to an understanding of death, and that most important question of what happens to us after we die.
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