The eight excellent qualities of the dharma jewel
06 Following in the Buddha's Footsteps
Part of an ongoing series of teachings based on the book Following in the Buddha's Footsteps, the fourth volume in The Library of Wisdom and Compassion series by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Venerable Thubten Chodron.
- How to apply the eight excellent qualities of buddha jewel in daily life
- True paths and true cessations
- Uninterrupted paths and liberated paths
- How afflictions and obscurations are eradicated in the path of seeing and path of meditation
- Natural purity and purity of adventitious defilements
- True paths are real protection and true cessations are real freedom
- How we spend time and energy to take care of our body
- Overview of eight excellent qualities of the dharma jewel
06 The Eight Excellent Qualities of the Dharma Jewel (download)
Contemplation points
- How can you apply the teachings on the eight qualities of the Buddha to your own life?
- What are uninterrupted paths and liberated paths? Describe how one progresses to the next leading to the abandonment of all afflictive and cognitive obscurations.
- Why is the Dharma Jewel the real protection, the real refuge?
- Spend some time really thinking about all the time and energy you spend taking care of this body, keeping it comfortable, healthy, and having the sense pleasure you desire. As a Dharma practitioner, what is a healthy way to view the body?
- Contemplate some of the benefits of attaining true paths from the text: they protect us, they are freedom, all acquired afflictions have ceased, no longer any doubt about the Three Jewels as objects of refuge, can never fall under the influence of misleading teachers, conviction in the law of karma and its effects is unmoving, attain higher levels on the path, innate obscurations are gradually eradicated. What would it be like to experience these?
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.