The scent of “am”
Have you ever wondered what an Anāgāmī (a non-returner) needs to do or work on in order to attain Arahantship (or final and complete realization of Nirvana)? Or, for that matter, how – if there are any necessary changes –…
Seven Suns vs Civilizational Conceit
One way our ego and conceit expresses itself is the infatuation with this will or should go on forever, it will not change. at least not now, when it is, or should be, the way I want it to be……
Understanding Vipassanā
Is the practice of vipassanā the application of viriya (energy), sati (mindfulness), samadhi (concentration) but only when it generates wisdom (paññā), more specifically ñāṇadassana (knowing and seeing)? Introduction The Sutta-Pitaka has a couple of texts which are not the word…
Seeing the Seeing of the Disappearing disappear
One might wonder how and why the modern vipassana movement experienced its revival just over a century ago in Burma. Looking back at 19th century Theravada countries, we can observe a widespread renaissance of Pali studies. This period saw the…
No opinion
The Pali language has a very interesting verb called “maññati”. Or rather the way the Buddha uses this verb is very intriguing. It is related to our English “to mean” or German “meinen”. It can be translated in a variety…
In search of the (original?) Oxen!
…sounds like Zen, might be Zen, but is no Zen? Hidden within in the scholastic bodies of ancient Theravadin commentarial literature dwell gems of wisdom taught by ancient Masters of Buddhist meditation. One such beautiful little gem, an allegory, really needs some…
Advantages of a systematic approach
Surely, most of you had had experience with the following most common approaches towards establishing a Buddhist practice: Scanning through bits and pieces of Buddhist literature and patching them together into your own personal regiment. Following the (ad-hoc) instructions of…
500 years after Schopenhauer
In one of his prefaces to the translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, Karl Eugen Neumann (who lived many years before the relativity theory was conceived, let alone quantum physics) once made the following observation: These discourses originated in the 6th…
Yoke of Oxen
Recently I was asked whether jhana and vipassana meditation ultimately lead to the same results.* My answer was, that I would rather rephrase that question: “How are jhana and vipassana faculties tied together on the path to Nibbana?” A…
Blind Faith – Gratitude – Disrespect
Sometimes we forget all about gratitude and respect for the help we receive from others. If one were to look at our attitude towards the many hardships and sacrifices of all the people who came before us who made it…