Creating our future
81 The Foundation of Buddhist Practice
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Volume 2 The Foundation of Buddhist Practice 
Mar 5, 2021 Part of an ongoing series of teachings (retreat and Friday) based on the book The Foundation of Buddhist Practice, second volume in “The Library of Wisdom and Compassion” series by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Venerable Thubten Chodron.
- How purification affects the results
- Preventing the coming together of cooperative conditions
- Reflecting on purification with emptiness and dependent arising
- Repeated purification and changes in daily life occurrences
- Creating the causes for the kind of person we want to be
- Short term and long term, suffering or beneficial results of our actions
- Dharma actions or eight worldly concerns
- Motivation for good rebirth, liberation, bodhicitta
The Foundation of Buddhist Practice 81: Creating Our Future (download)
Contemplation points
- What are ways in which purification affects the ripening of our karma? What is it that completely takes the potencies out of our mind completely? What are some signs that purification is working?
- Why might you (or perhaps others) not follow the Buddha’s advice, but pay more attention to the fortune tellers or Mo’s?
- What future do you envision for yourself and are your actions in line with that vision? For instance: What kind of place do you want to live in? What kind of people do you want for friends? What kind of qualities do you want to have in the future? What kind of person do you want to be? You’re creating the causes right now. Really spend some time with this.
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
