Over 2,500 years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha gained direct insight into the nature of reality; perfected the qualities of wisdom, compassion, and power; and then revealed the path to enlightenment to his disciples. In the 11th century, Atisha Dipamkara, an Indian master who was very influential in Tibet, organized the Buddha’s extensive teachings in the form of a graduated path to enlightenment (lamrim) to clarify how an individual practitioner should best put them into practice. The lamrim tradition was further systematized and elaborated upon by many holy beings of Tibet, including the great philosopher and practitioner Lama Tsongkhapa, and these teachings have continued to be passed from teacher to student up to this present day. Thus, when Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche began to transmit these teachings to their disciples in the 1970s, they came from a deeply experiential tradition of study and practice. This tradition is the core of Discovering Buddhism, a fourteen-module program that gives students a solid foundation in the teachings and practice of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism.

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