In the morning session of the first day His Holiness the Dalai Lama welcomes the main students of this teaching, a group of Buddhists from Korea. He compares the responses of the great spiritual philosophies to three questions: What is the nature of the self?  Does the self have a beginning? Does the self come to an end? For Buddhism, a causeless ‘beginning’ is not reasonable because material phenomena and consciousness can only arise in dependence upon their suitable/necessary causes and conditions. And the self appears in dependence upon imputation by consciousness.

In the afternoon session His Holiness introduces and begins a commentary on A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment by Jowo Atisha. This outline of the Mahayana path to Buddhahood focuses on three scopes of practice. His Holiness explains the goal of the path, the reasons for seeking that goal, and how practicing the three scopes brings us happy benefits in this life as well as leading us to ultimate happiness.

In the morning session His Holiness continues his teaching on Atisha’s Lamp for the Path, focusing on the two complementary aspects of that path to Buddhahood: method (bodhichitta) and wisdom (realizing emptiness). The method aspects of the path are based upon the holistic wisdom of interdependent causation while wisdom is developed through the method practices.  His Holiness discusses how to generate the mind of bodhichitta, Bodhisattva vows, the three aspects of Bodhisattva conduct, how to maintain and enhance bodhihcitta, our Buddha nature, and how to examine potential teachers.