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Asian Classics Institute (ACI)

The Asian Classics Institute is dedicated to the serious study and personal practice of the original teachings of the Buddha. The Institute was established by Geshe Michael Roach under the spiritual direction of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, a distinguished scholar and master of Buddhism from Tibet. The purpose of the Institute is to provide a thorough, accurate education to anyone interested.

The Treasure House of Higher Knowledge Course 01: An Introduction to the Abhidharma Kosha (Arizona, 2014)

This is the beginning of a new course series on the famous text called the Treasure House of Higher Knowledge (Abhidharma Kosha), written by the Buddhist master Vasubandhu in the fourth century AD. Abhidharma was one of the first forms of Buddhism to spread throughout India. It is considered to be part of Hinayana, mainly of the Vaibhashika (Detailist) school. There were seven original great books of Abhidharma composed by the original followers of the Buddha. Master Vasubandhu took all of those seven treasures and compiled them into the Abhidharma Kosha.
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Perfect Happiness: How to Practice the Perfection of Giving (Arizona, 2015)

Geshe Michael teaching from his new translation of Je Tsongkapa’s Illumination of the True Thought — one of the greatest books ever written on emptiness. The subject of these two classes is the presentation of the perfection of giving as it's found in the explanation of the first bodhisattva level, known as “Perfect Happiness”. Je Tsongkapa's Illumination of the True Thought is one of the greatest presentations of emptiness in history. This work in turn is an explanation of Entering the Middle Way, by Master Chandrakirti, who lived during the seventh century and was commenting himself upon the 3rd‐century author Arya Nagarjuna, whose Root Text on the Wisdom of the Middle Way is considered the greatest commentary of all time upon the emptiness teachings of the Buddha himself.
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Master Kamalashila’s Commentary to The Diamond Cutter Sutra (Taipei, 2016)

This is a 2 day teaching that Geshe Michael recently gave in Taiwan on Master Kamalashila's Commentary to The Diamond Cutter Sutra. Please check below for the audio and video of the teaching and the accompanying meditations. There are also images for each of the 25 meditations that were designed to follow the content of the text. There's also a link to download all those meditation images to your phone or tablet and have them available to do your daily meditations.
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The Devil Debates an Angel, Part 11: Target Shooting with a Blindfold On (2017, Arizona)

These teachings are taken directly from The Angel Debates The Devil, an ancient Tibetan teaching on emptiness by His Holiness the First Panchen Lama, who lived 1565-1662. The text is at the same time, extremely funny and extremely deep. It will help us be successful in this life, and in the next as well. This is the 11th ACI program dedicated to this ancient classic. We’ll be focusing on how “me” relates to body & mind, and how to change body & mind into an enlightened being with a rainbow body and a clear-light mind. As the Lama says, we’ll be trying to hit emptiness with the arrow of our mind, even as we wear a blindfold.
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The Devil Debates an Angel, Part 7: Melting Disagreements Away (2013, Phoenix)

Here's how disagreements go: Somebody else says they want to do something one way, and we gently suggest that we might want to do it another way. Then their opinion begins to harden, like cement—and our disagreement with them gets more concrete too. In the end, we reach a point where it feels like we’re completely, solidly stuck. It doesn’t have to be that way. There’s a certain kind of meditation that we can do, for a few minutes, which literally melts disagreements away.
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The Devil Debates an Angel, Part 6: How to Watch Your Thoughts (2013, Phoenix)

Our whole life, we've had thoughts going through our mind. They tell us if we're happy or angry, if we love somebody or we don't. The chatter is almost constant, year after year, for a whole lifetime. The ancient Tibetans said that we could learn how to watch these thoughts. And then we could learn how to make them more clear, more peaceful. And then we could improve our job, our relationships, and our happiness, day to day.
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The Devil Debates an Angel, Part 5: A Simple Path to Happiness (2012, Phoenix)

Life is like this. You are driving you car down the street at dusk. Suddenly you see a kitten scurrying across the road. You slam on the brakes—it almost sends everybody through the windshield. You look out to see if you hit the kitten or not, and suddenly you realize that it wasn’t a kitten at all, just a tree leaf being blown across the street.​
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The Devil Debates an Angel, Part 4: Getting Your Life To Work In A World That Isn’t What It Seems (2012, Phoenix)

The ancient wisdom of Asia says that the world is an illusion—which isn’t hard to believe sometimes, when our life gets turned upside down. But maybe there’s a way to see through this illusion and make our life go the way we always wanted it to: a perfect relationship, financial security, strong health, and a world without hunger or war. One of the greatest teachers of Tibet was the First Panchen Lama, who lived over 400 years ago. He said that if we really understand the illusion we can make it work for us, to create a life full of happiness and success.
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The Devil Debates an Angel, Part 3: A Weekend Party to Stop War (2011, Phoenix)

Four centuries ago there was a Tibetan master named the First Panchen Lama. He was one of the greatest meditators who ever lived. He learned the traps that can ruin our meditation, and he learned how to beat these traps. He described all this in a book called The Devil Debates an Angel, a very funny and profound argument between the Devil and an Angel, inside of one’s person’s head.
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The Devil Debates an Angel, Part 1 (2011, Phoenix)

What’s amazing is that—as we listen to the Devil and the Angel debating—we unexpectedly begin to get some new ideas about how the world around us works: why things happen to us the way they do, why we meet the people we do. By the end of the fight (we won’t tell you how it ends!), we have a lot of what we need to know to change our own life—to be happier, and make those around us happy.
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A Gift of Liberation 10: New Year Retreat (2013, Guadalajara)

During the this week-long teaching retreat Geshe Michael Roach will lead us through the section called “Learning to be Quiet,” from one of the greatest books ever written in Tibet: the Gift of Liberation by Pabongka Rinpoche. This intensive series of teachings is meant to give us all the ancient secrets for making a meditation session really successful and this intensive meditation retreat is a chance to actually put into practice these meditation secrets.
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A Gift of Liberation 09: The Seven Doors to Meditation (2012, Phoenix)

For centuries, Tibetan monks have used 7 powerful steps to put themselves into a state of deep meditation. During this course we will be learning a beautiful seven-step mental exercise which is followed by Tibetan monks in order to put themselves into a state of deep meditation. You can learn to do the same, for peace of mind, and for incredible focus to make your work and relationships successful.
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A Gift of Liberation 08: Learning to be Quiet (2012, Prescott)

During this week-long teaching retreat, Geshe Michael Roach will lead us through the section called “Learning to be Quiet,” from one of the greatest books ever written in Tibet: the Gift of Liberation by Pabongka Rinpoche. This intensive series of teachings is meant to give us all the ancient secrets for making a meditation session really successful and this intensive meditation retreat is a chance to actually put into practice these meditation secrets.
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A Gift of Liberation 07: Learning to be Quiet (2012, Phoenix)

Turn off your laptop. Put down your iPhone. Learn to be quiet. For 10 days we’ll be learning all the tricks that it takes to have a peaceful and powerful meditation session, based on the Tibetan classic, Liberation in Your Hands. Learn to balance your inner life and your life on Facebook. Ten days of incredible teachings on how to meditate, directly from one of the greatest books ever written in Tibet. Plus awesome practice classes, beginner to advanced, to help you get started.
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