Making the Jhanas Mainstream
…was Ayya Khema‘s noble intention. Let us all walk in her footsteps. From an email thread: Better I respond now, before letting this lie around too long…so short answers. If not clear enough, give me a call 🙂 I’m glad…
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Where is the Buddhist Bible?
Or: There IS a Buddhist Bible. An invitation to read: When was the last time you read a book? How many pages did you gobble up during a weekend? 400? 200? 800? What if someone tells you that after reading…
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. From the…
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…
The pyramid of virtues
How are the five precepts, kamma from this and past lives, and vipassana all related to 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 🙂 ) IMHO, brought about by a rather misconceived interpretation of one very important and frequent term in the discourses of the Buddha,…
Lets talk about the world!
Normally, when we talk about the world, we think of mountains, oceans, rivers, valleys, towns, transportation, globalization, 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 🙂 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 Nibbana as…