Life of Buddha – Heart Lessons

1. The birth of Prince Siddhartha
2. The education of Prince Siddhartha
3. Prince Siddhartha discovers the nature of this world
4. Renouncing palace life and practising with teachers
5. Buddha’s enlightenment
6. How all beings can become buddhas
7. The training on the five paths and Buddha’s conviction to teach
8. The first turning of the wheel of Dharma—the Four Noble Truths
9. Defining ‘awakening’ and the establishment of the Sangha
10. The Buddha’s two main disciples—Shariputra & Maudgalyayana
11. The story of Anathapindika and the gradual approach of Buddha’s teachings
12. The story of Gotami, impermanence and karma
13. Stories of transformation: Devadatta & Nanda
14. The main goal is to transform ourselves and the story of Angulimala
15. Meditation and how the Buddha taught students in various skilful ways
16. The second turning of the wheel of Dharma—prajnaparamita
17. There is no contradiction in all the teachings of the three turnings
18. The nonsectarianism and spirit of the Buddha’s teachings
19. How the Dharma continues and heart advice for difficult times

About 2500 years ago a young prince left his palace and went in search of a way to eliminate the pain and suffering of all beings. Six years later he found the ultimate solution and became known as the Buddha, the Awakened One.

In the world today a great number of people take the Buddha as their guide. Buddhism is one of the ancient religions. In Sanskrit, the word ‘buddha’ means someone who has developed his or her wisdom, compassion and other positive qualities to perfection. A buddha is a perfect human being and everybody can actually become a buddha.

In this series of 19 sessions Rinpoche shares with us the life story of the Buddha and his core teachings and insights, so that through these we can understand how to deal with our own life and how to work on the challenges we face.

The teachings were recorded in Sikkim in June/July 2020 and were originally edited and presented by Rigpa. Each session is around 20 minutes long.

The teachings have also been dubbed in French, German, Spanish and Italian. Click on the menu to the side (or below) to access these language versions.