Chanting in the 6th century

Just recently I came across this fascinating story, which is especially valuable to those among you who read or chant Pali texts: Dhammaruwan Story : Dhammaruwan was born in a small village near Kandy , Sri Lanka in November, 1968….

The breaking of a strong thought

A story from the pali canon: “The wise teachers of old, however, used manual work to break strong obsessions. This is how the story goes: A young monk called “Tissa” lived together with his preceptor in the Tissamahavihara monastery. It…

Who is the authority?

One of the better known parts of the famous 5th century Buddhist compendium “Path to Purity” by the scholar monk and commentator Ven. Buddhaghosa deals with concentration meditation and the steps necessary to get meditation instructions from an experienced teacher….

The pyramid of virtues

How are the five precepts, kamma from this and past lives and vipassana all related with each other? Actually, it seems like they really are, in a very intriguing way, and in this post we will explain how. But first…

The world II – concept and reality

There is one major misconception in current mainstream – understanding of Buddhism (if there is such a thing šŸ™‚ ) IMHO, brought about by a rather misconceived interpretation of one very important and frequent term in the discourses of the…

Lets talk about the world!

Normally, when we talk about the world, we think of mountains, oceans, rivers, valleys, towns, transportation, globalisation, earth, planets, the universe. When the Buddha spoke about “the world” he had something else in mind: As he was sitting there, he…

Are you a monk? – Consider only one duty left!

If you are a monk, i guess you do not read (online). But if you do, this text was written exactly for you šŸ™‚ In 100 BC Buddhist monks faced a tough question: “Should we preferably memorize and thus keep…

Can you feel the sense stream’s drag?

There are a couple of instances in the Pitaka, where the Buddha compares our moment to moment experience (zoom out and you would call it “life”) with a swift river. In some similes he compares our journey from Samsara to…

Ingredients of insight progress

Even at Buddha’s time insight meditators went through times of doubt regarding their meditation practice. In the following case one monk thought he might simply ask his fellow monks how they practice and solve his own uncertainty. Unfortunately, they practiced…

Smiling like the morning sun

The story of the elder Mahāmitta: The elder Mahāmitta, as they say, dwelled in the “plougher cave”. Close to the cave was a little village where he went for alms. An old lady cared for him like her own son…