Geshe Tashi Tsering, The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 1: The Four Noble Truths, edited by Gordon McDougall, and with a foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2005) (The four noble truths are: "The noble truth of suffering"; "The noble truth of the origin of suffering"; "The noble truth of the cessation of suffering and the origin of suffering"; and "The noble truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering and the origin of suffering". Id. at 8. There can be no ethics--no sense of right or wrong--without taking others' feelings into account. Right from the beginning we should try to see that the feelings and rights of others are important and work toward serving not only our own welfare but also the welfare of all others." Id. at 26-27. "Our lives are subject to three polarities: [1] satisfaction and dissatisfaction [; 2] attraction and aversion [; and 3] freedom and lack of freedom." "It is important to remember that where there is attraction, there is also aversion; that dissatisfaction goes along with satisfaction; and that if we have freedom we also lack freedom.... The point is that everything within samsara ['samsara' (Skt.): cyclic existence, the state of constantly taking rebirth due to delusions and karma] also carries with it the basis for its opposite.... In or daily activities we are constantly trying to attain one of these goals and avoid its opposite, but this is a fundamentally impossible quest. By analyzing this situation, we will realize the suffering of change." Id. at 54-55. "You can't cheat the law of karma like you can a human law." Id. at 76. "The experience of pleasant or unpleasant things is not karma. Karma is the action that caused the experience. The imprint or propensity ... left on our mindstreams by that action has ripened due to causes and conditions coming together." Id at 77.).
Geshe Tashi Tsering, The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 2: Relative Truth, Ultimate Truth, edited by Gordon McDougall, and with a foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008) ("[S]tudy for the sake of knowledge alone is relatively meaningless. Knowledge per se is just facts accumulated in the way that we accumulate money or CDs. It's what we do with that knowledge that is the important thing. Furthermore, knowledge without either a spiritual or a therapeutic motivation can so easily lead to ego enhancement. There are wonderful, knowledgeable people in the world, but there are also many puffed-up ego-driven 'experts,' who tend to dictate and advise without a shred of compassion." Id. at 146.).
Geshe Tashi Tsering, The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 3: Buddhist Psychology, edited by Gordon McDougall, and with a foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006) ("Our world is is crisis now, a crisis caused largely by an ignorance of the real path to happiness. Look about and see if this isn't so, in your own life, in the lives of the people you know, and in the way the cultures of the world are developing. More and more, the spiritual is being set aside for the material pleasure; deep, lasting contentment for the quick buzz. This is due to an ignorance of the role the mind plays in creating happiness and suffering." "In our greed for possessions, we are eating the world we live in. Gandhi said that the world has enough for human need but not for human greed, and it is greed that we see manifesting so strongly in our lives today. Possibly there is no more greed today than in previous times, but with the increase in population and advances in technology, we now have the ability to destroy the delicate infrastructure of this planet. Wisdom has always been needed, but never more so than at this moment." "We have all the tools necessary for a great transformation, of our ourselves and of the world we live in. All we need is an enquiring and persevering mind. Mind is complex, but not unknowable. The subjects covered in this book deal with understanding the mind and using that understanding to transform it. As with any tool, whether you use it is entirely up to you." Id. at 136.).
Geshe Tashi Tsering, The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 4: The Awakening Mind, edited by Gordon McDougall, and with a foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008) ("Bodhichitta is the essence of all Buddhist practice. The word bodhichitta itself explains so much: bodhi is Sanskirt for 'awake' or 'awakening,' and chitta for 'mind.' As enlightenment is the state of being fully awakened, this precious mind of bodhichitta is the mind that is starting to become completely awakened in order to benefit all other beings. There are two aspects to this mind: the aspiration to benefit others and the wish to attain complete enlightenment in order to do that most skillfully." Id. at 1. "At every moment we are faced with choices, and we can choose to be selfish or selfless. In a tiny way we are imitating what the Buddha did when he was working toward his own enlightenment.... Our outlook is still too narrow to appreciate how vast the benefits of such a mind are, but what we have here and now is the opportunity to interact with other people either relatively selfishly or relatively selflessly. I'm sure that if you were to try this, your 'selfish' week would be one of misery and complications,, whereas your 'selfless' week would be full of happiness and spontaneous joy. If that is so, why don't we all start right now to turn our attitude around slowly? ..." Id. at 66.).
Geshe Tashi Tsering, The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 5: Emptiness, edited by Gordon McDougall, and with a foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2009) ("There is one area, however, where the Buddha diverted drastically from the established thinking and was a true revolutionary. Even today to hold such a view is to be truly radical. That view is selflessness." Id. at 1. "All philosophies concern themselves with who we are. For the other Indian philosophies, this was atman, the soul or self, but the Buddha declared that the reality of the self was anatman, no-self. This concept of selflessness has been a key point of Buddhist philosophy since then, whether it is called anatman, no-self, selflessness, or emptiness." Id. at 2. "We currently perceive things as having intrinsic existence, where in fact they lack it. We see a chair and that seems to be that. It exists in and of itself, completely independent of causes and other factors, completely separate from the world in which it exists and the mind that apprehends it. This fundamental misreading of the nature of things and events is the cause of our suffering, because by means of this ignorance we are likely to develop attachment and aversion. As long as there is the slightest sense that things--especially our own sense of 'I'--exist independent and concretely, we will cling to that separateness. When something strengthens this sense of a real 'I,' we development attachment for it, and conversely, when something threatens it, we develop aversion to it. This is why a clear and deep understanding of emptiness is crucial if we are seriously seeking the complete elimination of all our suffering." Id. at 4. From the backcover: "Emptiness does not imply a nihilistic worldview, but rather the idea that a permanent entity does not exist in any single phenomenon or being. Everything exists interdependently within an immeasurable quantity of causes and conditions. An understanding of emptiness allows us to see the world as a realm of infinite possibility instead of a static system. Just like a table consists of wooden parts, and the wood is from a tree, and the tree depends on air, water, and soil, so is the world filled with a wondrous interdependence that extends to our own mind and awareness.").
Geshe Tashi Tsering, The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 6: Tantra, edited by Gordon McDougall, and with a foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012) ("Tibetan Buddhism is generally divided into three vehicles, or yanas: the individual liberation vehicle, the Hinayana; the universal liberation vehicle, the Mahayana; and the tantric vehicle, the Vajrayana. The practices and teaching of the first two vehicles, the Hinayana and Mahayana, are the foundation of Vajrayana practice. The main teachings of the Hinayana are the four noble truths, the thirty-seven aspects of enlightenment, and the twelve links of dependent origination. In the Mahayana, the main teachings are the practices of the altruistic awakened mind (bodhichtta) and the training of the bodhisattva, such as the six perceptions. It is crucial that anybody interested in practicing tantra prepares by first thoroughly practicing the path laid out in the other two vehicles." Id. at 1. "To attempt tantric practice without the foundation of the four noble truths or a well-developed sense of altruism would be at best futile and at worst disastrous. It is important to see how Vajrayana fits into the whole of Buddhism so you don;t make the mistake of seeing it as a separate and unconnected practice...." Id at 2. "Furthermore, it is important to note that Buddhist Vajrayana tantra is quite different from the tantra practiced in non-Buddhist Indian traditions. On the surface there are many similarities, but as you will see, Buddhist tantric practices are imbued with the realizations of the other two vehicles, making it quite distinct." Id. at 2.).
