Lama Alan explains carefully how the sūtra teachings on the four noble truths, emptiness, and Buddha nature prepare a disciple for Vajrayāna methods such as Dzogchen or Mahāmudrā by refining the idea of the luminous mind to introduce the innate mind of clear light. You’ll learn about how the uncommon features of tantra—including working with the channels, winds, and drops—offer a unique opportunity to empower the efficacy of your practice.

Lama Alan Wallace describes how references to selflessness and the luminous mind in the Pali canon and Perfection of Wisdom sūtras prepare the student for the teachings on manifesting their own Buddha nature in the context of the third turning of the wheel of Dharma. You’ll recognize how to identify what engenders happiness and suffering and how to remove the veils obscuring your pure, primordial awareness.

Lama Alan explores the motivational statements from Atiśa and Prajñāmokṣa in the text, testing their relevance a millennium after being written down. Without diluting or modernizing the Dharma, these teachings can illuminate the darkest depths of delusion, opening the lotus of the heart for the benefit of all sentient beings. The ‘‘just-that-ness’’ of emptiness transcends karma, afflictions, and self-centered attachment. Resting in sheer luminosity, the distilled mind without additives provides the ultimate inner refuge.

Lama Alan draws comparisons with Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā traditions and this pristine awareness that is the essential nature of the mind, the dharmakāya. Not looking elsewhere, the mind itself is the nature of the Buddha.

In this introductory lesson, Thupten Jinpa explores the importance of the philosophy of emptiness and how it constitutes, directly or indirectly, the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings. The cultivation of such wisdom is the ground, path, and result of the Mahayana way, providing an antidote to the fundamental ignorance grasping at intrinsic existence. By analyzing the grasping to inherent reality and the conceptual elaborations that arise from such a belief, a wisdom opposite to the active “mis-knowing” of ignorance can be attained. 

The tendency to project the permanence of phenomena is implicit in the very architecture of perception and language. This means that an intellectual understanding of the emptiness of inherent existence is not enough to cut the root of innate grasping.  Mādhyamika analysis challenges the multiplicity of assumptions that arise in everyday life, ultimately silencing the mental chatter of conceptual elaborations. By making peace with not seeking grounding in objective existence, the mind can find respite in the quiet of the inexpressible truth of emptiness.

(The Preliminaries III)

The indispensable common and uncommon preliminary practices prepare the mind for the journey to liberation. Lama Alan Wallace provides commentary on Düdjom Rinpoché’s teachings about the revolutions in outlook triggered by purifying the mindstream, leading to decreased mental afflictions. Understanding the truth of impermanence provides the freedom to change while also undermining grasping at illusion; understanding the truth of karma supports ethical and meaningful behavior. Lama Alan explains how realigning goals enhances Dharma practice just as Buddha-Dharma helps to clarify realistic intentions and strategies.