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those develop the skills you need to Personally, I understand these Buddhist world is so ancient we
do authentic tantric practice. teachings as having been revealed can’t count the number of years
by reality itself to the human Saṃsāra has existed. The mind itself
As Tantra is not found in the early founders of the Longchen Nyingthig, contains the capacity to create the
Buddhist scriptures, can we still my lineage. most horrible hell realms or open
consider Tantra as part of the out to full awakening, and there
original teachings of the Buddha? Beyond the question of who are innumerable world systems

originally taught these practices, throughout the universe.
First, as a scholar of Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism holds that the
I want to acknowledge that I ultimate test of whether something Not only is the universe vast and
personally don’t think of the is an authentic Buddhist teaching the mind incredibly powerful; the
Vajrayāna teachings as coming is what happens when you put it buddha-dharma also offers us
directly from the historical Buddha. into practice. Does it benefit your specific ways of training our hearts
They developed about a thousand mind and life, or does it make things and minds to transform this lifetime
years after his time. Plenty of worse? Using that criterion, I can and future lifetimes and ultimately to
people and even some of my fellow easily accept these incredible and aspire to the goal of waking up fully
Western scholars might disagree life-changing practices as authentic and benefiting all beings. I’m grateful
with me on this! buddha-dharma. to the dharma because I feel that it’s
empowered me to question who I
So why do I still devote most of my In what ways has Tibetan think I am and to recognize – at least
dharma life to this tradition if I don’t Buddhism given you a new in theory – that my true nature is
think Shakyamuni Buddha taught perspective of life? luminous and completely beyond the
the Vajrayāna practices? Every capacity of my ordinary mind.
morning I do the Foundational Learning about and practicing
Practices, and they really connect Tibetan Buddhism has opened my The new perspective on life that
me to the sacred world that mind to a vast view of the world. Tibetan Buddhism gives me is less
supports dharma: buddhas, I was raised in a fundamentalist a set of fixed beliefs and more a
bodhisattvas, and lineage lamas. Christian sect that believed the earth set of challenges to my fixed sense
is 6,000 years old, that humans (and of self. You think you’re made of a
Part of doing Foundational Practices everything else that exists) were physical body plus a mind? What if
is a prayer reciting the names of all created by a god, that we live once you were a buddha with a body made
the beings who have transmitted and then go to an eternal heaven or of light? I’m grateful to have found a
the teachings I’m practicing. The hell. All you have to do is obey that spiritual system that’s ancient and
first being listed in that lineage isn’t god, and you’ll be okay. sophisticated and offers tools to
Shakyamuni Buddha but Kuntu guide my inquiry into the nature of
Zangpo or Samantabhadra, the Compared with that description this world we live in. EH
primordial buddha of basic space. of the universe we live in, the