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.

As His Holiness prepares for the permission initiation (Jenang) of Four Armed Avalokiteshvara in the tradition of Atisha, the congregation recites the Heart Sutra. His Holiness then explains and offers lay precepts of individual liberation. Before His Holiness performs the ceremony for generating a mind aspiring to bodhichitta, the congregants recite the Seven Limb Prayer from Shantideva’s Guide to a Bodhisattva's Way of Life. During the Avalokitshvara jenang, His Holiness comments on the purpose of tantric meditation and confers the Bodhisattva Vows for engaging bodhichitta. His Holiness concludes by completing his reading of Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.