Who is Buddha?

The Historical Buddha was born in approximately 570 B.C. in Northern India. After a long search, he recognized in deep meditation the nature of mind and reached enlightenment. His teaching, which makes beings fearless, joyful, and kind, is the main religion of several East Asian countries.

Since the early seventies, its profound view and vast number of methods have inspired and fascinated a growing number of people in western cultures. Buddha is seen as a timeless mirror of mind's inherent potential.

What did Buddha Teach?

In an immediate way, which makes Buddhism directly relevant to our lives, Buddha explained what exists ultimately and what is conditioned. This understanding makes the experience of lasting happiness possible. Buddhism does not proclaim dogmas but encourages critical questioning. Then, through the right meditations, the intellectual understanding of the teachings becomes a personal experience.

Additional methods solidify levels of consciousness that have been reached. The goal of Buddhas' teachings is the full development of the innate possibilities of body, speech, and mind.

What is Buddhism?

The Buddha gave methods by which full enlightenment may be attained. He made clear which teachings relate to ultimate or conditional truth. The Buddha showed his students in practical and understandable ways how to use all experiences in life as steps toward enlightenment and also gave methods that lead to deep and lasting happiness.

He encouraged his students to be skeptical, inviting them to thoroughly check for themselves whether his teachings were dogmatic or truly liberating. Buddhist meditation methods can generate powerful inner change enabling experiences to be integrated directly towards enriching our lives. These skillful methods allow the levels of consciousness already reached through meditation to become firmly anchored and never again lost. The highest teaching known as Chag Chen or Dzogchen, as Mahamudra or Maha Ati, allows us to open to the experience of total non-separation between subject, object and action.

What is Karma?

Karma means cause and effect, not fate. The understanding that each of us is responsible for our own lives makes it possible to consciously generate positive impressions, which bring happiness and help us to avoid the causes of future suffering. Positive states of mind may be strengthened effectively through the methods of the Diamond Way, while negative impressions, waiting to mature, can be transformed into wisdom.

What is Meditation?

In Buddhism, meditation means, "effortlessly remaining in what is." This state may be brought about by calming and holding the mind, when compassion and wisdom are realized, or by working with our bodies´ energy channels and meditating on light forms of the Buddhas.

The most effective method, if one can do it, is the constant identification with one's own Buddha nature, and the experience of always being in a Pure Land, both of which are taught in the Diamond Way. When the oneness of the seer, what is seen and the act of seeing is unbroken, in and between the times of meditation, the goal, Mahamudra is reached.