No one likes to suffer, and most of us don’t deal with suffering in a healthy way. However, when you understand what suffering is, you can handle it more productively and gracefully.

According to Buddhist wisdom, suffering comes from a basic understanding and perception of ourselves as “I” — meaning the separate Self. When you react to suffering with wisdom — understanding that the Self is an illusion — you can begin to experience happiness, and share your happiness with others.

And, when you start to realize that your suffering is nothing compared to the suffering of the seven billion people on our planet — you’ll naturally start to perceive your own pain as insignificant.

During this opening session, you’ll

• Tackle your source of suffering — the Self
• Discover how the Self is an illusion… and, therefore suffering is an illusion
• Begin to learn how to approach your suffering so it doesn’t destroy you or make you bitter
• Be guided in a meditative contemplation to gain an experiential understanding of the teachings

Buddhist wisdom tells us that our shortcomings are the result of being off center. What throws us off center is the greed and fear that come with the illusion of the Self. And the depth of our fear equals the power of our greed. The more we own, the greater our stress.

Believing that you’re separate from everyone and everything else promotes a great deal of fear. You’re able to recenter yourself when you understand that you are the sister, brother, mother, and father to all sentient beings. When you understand that we are all One, that you are not separate from any other being, your fear diminishes.

Your innate supreme essence has no limitation. It takes a lot of contemplation to intellectually understand (and then experience) this concept, but when you do, you have nothing left to fear.

In this module, you’ll:

• See how you can detach from greed, fear, and stress — and recenter — by understanding that the Self is an illusion
• Realize that because the body is born, it will die… and that the mind is never born, so it will never die
• Begin to grasp that every being is immortal — mind, spirit, and essence
• Learn that we are not reborn… and that, like the sun, our cycle of rising and setting continues
• Be guided in a meditative contemplation to gain an experiential understanding of the teachings

If you want to find joy, you have to stop looking for it outside yourself. You can only find it within… by being happy with yourself, exactly where you are. How do you do this?

According to the Buddha, every living being is perfect. When you understand that your essence — that everyone’s essence — is perfect, you develop the capacity to find joy even in the unfortunate and painful aspects of your life.

The imperfections you perceive are not part of your essence… instead, they’re only your shortcomings, habits, misunderstandings, and misperceptions.

In this module, His Holiness will share with you:

• How to find joy from within, rather than looking for it outside yourself
• The importance of letting your principles, integrity, love, kindness, compassion, and wisdom permeate your life
• A prayer for when you’re suffering
• That suffering can become a vehicle for relating, in a personal way, to everyone who’s suffering
• A meditation process to gain an experiential understanding of the teachings

When we ask, “What’s the purpose of life?”, Buddhist wisdom tells us that it’s to have joy. The belief is that, to be truly joyous, you must be helpful and of benefit to others.

To have noble purpose means that your life has meaning beyond the fulfillment of your own needs and desires. Your knowledge, strength, and abilities are used to create meaning — not only for yourself, but for everyone.

Serving others so you can be rewarded or appreciated is to serve with a heavy heart. Assisting others with a light heart means you do it without expectation of anything in return. So when you serve, you don’t feel compromised or burdened.

In this session, you’ll discover:

• That you can find your life purpose in serving others with a light heart
• How you can have a meaningful, happy life by making the lives of all beings more meaningful and happy
• That doing for others is the greatest honor
• How you can save someone’s life with just one small gesture — a noble achievement, according to Buddhist thought
• A meditative contemplation to gain an experiential understanding of the teachings

You’ve likely heard the expression, “The higher you fly, the harder you’ll fall.” When we boast about our achievements and abilities, we lose our grace.

During this final session, you’ll discover why humility IS grace. Remaining calm, even when something terrible is happening, is grace. And no matter what happens, you should never lose your grace — because it’s your path to absolute awakening.

His Holiness will also share with you how noble it is to perceive and believe in the path to awakening. In this constantly changing world, it’s important to constantly evolve. You need to do your part to create a “new normal,” changing the trajectory of our planet — from ignorance to wisdom, stealing to giving, and killing to saving.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• How to be humble about what you’re able to do
• Why if you don’t progress on your path to awakening, you can become arrogant or self-centered
• How when you’re succeeding along your path to awakening, your humility and grace will manifest in concrete ways
• That you can shift into higher awareness and wisdom with sincerity and purity
• A meditative contemplation to gain an experiential understanding of the teachings

These poems, written by His Holiness, are dohas… sacred poems of profound wisdom about the path toward ultimate liberation. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, gurus compose dohas — considered to be sacred essays and meditation instructions — with melodies for disciples to easily remember and contemplate. With these recordings, you’ll experience three songs chosen by His Holiness specifically for this course.

Active Peace: One World, One Humanity

Passive peace is good at an individual level. It’s the practice of sitting still and training the mind to experience inner peace, regardless of outside surroundings. In truth, we’ll never know a time when everything becomes peaceful forever. Active peace is something we have to work for, constantly maintain, and upgrade… generation after generation, according to the time, place, and people. In this sacred poem, His Holiness expresses his vision for active peace. What we aspire to today, and what we dream of, can become reality if we work toward it wholeheartedly, with wisdom and perseverance. This video also contains footage of His Holiness’ Pilgrimage for Active Peace in 1989… and highlights of his continued work today.

Fresh & Free: The Soul-Searching Journey for Liberation

Throughout our lives, most of us feel discouraged at times by the hardships we face. We’re raised to brace ourselves against pain. In the journey of ascension, we explore and come to realize that the capacity for rejuvenation and freedom is always within us — and that we’re not alone in our struggles, for many share the same quest.

The Five Sister Dakinis of Sacred Mt. Everest: Prayer to Invoke the Blessing & Protection of the Goddess Energy

In Tibetan Buddhism, wisdom is the manifestation of feminine energy. This sacred poem, sung in traditional Tibetan melody, praises and prays to the protector goddesses of the environment to remove obstacles along the path.

In this video, you’ll be offered a glimpse of monastic life during the summer retreat, when the monks and nuns dedicate themselves to practice and to the wellbeing of all. In this beautifully produced video footage, you’ll discover a prayer and chanted mantra invoking positive benefits.