A dear friend of mine–that happens to be a fairly new convert to Theravada Buddhism–emailed me with a question. Is Buddhism more than just a philosophy? A colleague of hers, upon hearing of her new-found religion, quickly dismissed her ambition…
The other day I came across this very true statement: ”It is a sad fact that whereas we rarely find Muslims without the Quran or Christians without the Bible, yet we find many Buddhists without the Nikayas.” This quote is from…
What is the difference between right mindfulness and wrong mindfulness? [1] Both of them are part of an electric drill, if you excuse the mundane simile for a moment: It is the direction of the drill that ultimately matters, and…
[Part of our series: Arahant Stories.] Once, they say, the monk Elder called “Rag-robe” (Paṃsukūlikatthero), who lived in Pacinakhandaraji, decided to travel to the great pagoda-mountain* in order to worship the stupa there. After he had venerated the stupa, he…
In addition to an earlier post on Ven. Malunkyaputta‘s most interesting analysis of vipassanā meditation (right in front of the Buddha) which clarified what “bare awareness” actually boils down to in terms of meditation practice there is another beautiful personal…
Practical ideas on anussati, sati and apilapanā. Today I would like to invite you to a short experiment. It is going to be very simple. Here is the experiment: Think of a random number, for instance “1325”. Now close your…
“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience, which refuses dogmatic. If there’s any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism….”[1] said the famous Albert Einstein. Even before…
Many of you already know about my deep gratitude towards Ven. Ñāṇananda who I consider to be one of the greatest living Dhamma and Meditation masters. If anything you ever read on this blog might have helped you, all that…
Imagine you being a surfer. Even if you have never actually surfed, just imagine for a moment standing in the ocean, close to the beach, holding your board in both your hands, looking out at the sea, watching the waves….
Take a classic text of Hinduism, the revered Yogasutra (approx. 200 BCE (2)) and compare its semantics and vocabulary to the Buddhist canonical texts. Such a comparison will make it pretty obvious that the author of the Yoga Sutra was…