In a series of teachings over the past few years, Geshe Michael has taught about the great ideas of the Diamond Cutter Sutra. He used the ancient Indian commentary of Master Kamalashila (c. 740-795): a beautiful and extremely detailed commentary, which has not been taught or studied widely for over a thousand years.
This is a mnemonic system which Geshe Michael has designed and coined the term “Idim” (idea image) which gives students and teachers a very powerful tool to learn, review, and meditate on all of the great ideas of the Diamond Cutter Sutra in a series of easily recallable images from Master Kamalashila’s great commentary.
We’ve extracted all of the Idims from a recent retreat at Diamond Mountain and have created a series of short videos with Geshe Michael’s commentary to each Idim. This is still a work in progress, and Geshe Michael is scheduled to complete them all in 2019. What you find below is everything we have to date.
Some of the topics covered in the Diamond Cutter Sutra include: how the direct perception of emptiness is accomplished, what happens after the direct perception of emptiness, how understanding emptiness leads to the destruction of mental afflictions, how the direct perception of emptiness leads to full enlightenment and paradise, emptiness and the two extremes, how empty things function, emptiness and purification, the relationship between emptiness and karma, emptiness and the bodies of a Buddha, what is non-duality, how a bodhisattva should live, the future of Buddha’s teachings, and the perfection of wisdom.
Videos
This is a video playlist. Just click for the next video to see additional videos in the series.
Audio
An Idim Review of Master Kamalashila’s Great Commentary to the Diamond Cutter Sutra in Multiple Languages
This is a mnemonic system which Geshe Michael has designed and coined the term “Idim” (idea image) which gives students and teachers a very powerful tool to learn, review, and meditate on all of the great ideas of the Diamond Cutter Sutra in a series of easily recallable images from Master Kamalashila’s great commentary.
