Paramita Center Southeast

06/02/2026

An amazing weekend of sand mandala of Avolokiteshvara and celebration of Saka Dawa Duchen

05/31/2026

On the full moon of Saka Dawa — today, Saka Dawa Düchen — Tibetan Buddhists commemorate Buddha Shakyamuni's birth, his awakening, and his parinirvana as a single observance. The fourth month of the lunar year is sacred because what he did was inseparable: he was born into the conditions that made awakening possible; he saw clearly what is the case; he taught what he saw for forty-five years; and at the end he showed that even the unraveling of the body is part of the teaching.

This week we worked with one piece of the architecture of mind he described — how mental factors sort into kinds. Today, the architecture isn't the point. Today the point is that someone walked the path that the architecture describes, and that the path remains open.

Where in your practice today is gratitude for the teaching that reached you?

05/29/2026

This Sunday — Saka Dawa Düchen, the full moon of the lunar fourth month — Buddhist tradition commemorates Buddha Shakyamuni's birth, his enlightenment, and his parinirvana as a single observance. Three events spanning his life held together as one day, because together they describe what the path is: a way out of suffering that someone actually walked.

This week on Tuesday we opened a piece of the architecture of mind he taught — the mental factors and how they sort. What he awakened to included this kind of precision. What made his awakening transmissible was that he could describe what he saw clearly enough for others to find it themselves.

A fitting season to sit with what training the mind actually means.

05/28/2026

In the Gelug abhidharma, the fifty-one mental factors sort into six categories — five that show up every time the mind moves, five that arise only sometimes, eleven that are wholesome, six root afflictions, twenty more that grow from those roots, and four that can go either way. The point isn't to memorize them. It's locating what's actually arising — and noticing that very little of it is well-described as "me" or "just the way I am." This week opened the map; in the coming weeks we'll take the categories one at a time.

Tell us in the comments: what positive mental factor do you wish you used more?

05/26/2026

In the Gelug abhidharma, the mental factors aren't a vague list. The classical count is fifty-one, organized into six categories — five that are present in every moment of mind, five that arise when we're determining what an object is, eleven that are wholesome, six root afflictions, twenty secondary afflictions that grow from those roots, and four that can go either way depending on what they're directed at. The point isn't to memorize the list. It's that the tradition has done the careful work of distinguishing the varieties of mental life precisely enough that practice can locate what's actually arising. Part 2 of the mental factors series, leading toward June 20–21 in Toronto.

05/25/2026

A bit more Tibetan, apropos the Center. The whole point of learning Tibetan is eventually to better understand the dharma!

05/24/2026

The week opened with a distinction that doesn't sound like much until you start using it: what we call "the mind" is not one thing. In the Gelug abhidharma, there is a primary awareness, and there are the mental factors that always travel with it — fifty-one in the classical count.

Saka Dawa, the lunar month commemorating Buddha Shakyamuni's birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana, continues; Saka Dawa Düchen falls next Sunday, May 31. A fitting season to sit with what we actually mean by training the mind. If the mind is not one thing, training it cannot be one thing either.

Which mental factor came into focus for you this week?

05/23/2026

More Tibetan as I work toward understanding the dharma better in the language of the lineage.

What I am saying: "Good morning everyone! My name is Les. I live in Tennessee. I am a psychology professor. I am very interested in Tibetan Buddhism. I have a Tibetan Lama and tutor."

05/22/2026

The Conditioned Mind: Buddhist Philosophy and Western Psychology on How We Think, Feel, and Suffer

A two-day urban retreat with Lobsang Tharchin (Les Kertay), co-sponsored by Paramita Center Southeast and Paramita Centre of Toronto and Ontario.

Saturday and Sunday, June 20–21, 2026 • 9:30 AM–4:30 PM ET both days.
In-person at Paramita Centre, Toronto, or via Zoom from anywhere.

This week on Tuesday we opened the first of six teachings on the mental factors — the Buddhist tradition's precise account of what we actually mean when we say "the mind." That mini-series is the philosophical ground for what we'll take up across two days in Toronto: how Buddhist abhidharma and Western psychology each describe the structure of suffering, where their maps overlap, where they diverge, and what each path makes possible.

Registration:
US students ($75 USD, Zoom or in-person): https://buddhismsoutheast.org/event/the-conditioned-mind-buddhist-philosophy-western-psychology-on-how-we-think-feel-suffer/
Canadian students ($95 CAD, Zoom or in-person): https://www.buddhistmeditationtoronto.org/events/the-conditioned-mind-views-from-buddhist-and-western-psychology

Questions: [email protected]

Saturday, June 20 and Sunday, June 21 In Person and Online

05/21/2026

In the Gelug abhidharma, what we call "the mind" is at least two things working together — a primary awareness, and the mental factors that always accompany it. Attention, feeling, recognition, intention. These aren't the mind itself; they're its companions. The point of distinguishing them isn't taxonomy. It's precision: when you can name what's actually arising in a moment, you can work with it. Six Tuesdays of mental factors opened this week on the grid.