…sounds like Zen, might be Zen, but is no Zen? Hidden within 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…
Surely, most of you have had experience with the following most common approaches to establishing a Buddhist practice: Scanning through bits and pieces of Buddhist literature and patching them together into your own personal regimen. Following the (ad-hoc) instructions of…
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…
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 pure…
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…
“Tell me, which part of the Tripitaka is the most ancient? Which part would I want to read, study and practice if I look for the most authentic instructions?” The answer is very simple. There are two little collections of…
…to you all! May you “live long and prosper” 😉 The above image, quite appropriate for the day, is one of the most skillful artistic representations of the “Buddha visiting the devas” (looks like the 33) I have ever seen…thanks…
Famous words by the Buddha: Vuttaṃ kho panetaṃ bhagavatā: yo paṭiccasamuppādaṃ passati so dhammaṃ passati; yo dhammaṃ passati so paṭiccasamuppādaṃ passatīti. Paṭiccasamuppannā kho panime yadidaṃ pañcupādānakkhandhā. Yo imesu pañcasu upādānakkhandhesu chando ālayo anunayo ajjhosānaṃ so dukkhasamudayo. Yo imesu pañcasu upādānakkhandhesu…
From time to time I wonder: How many of you out there scratch your heads when you read the first line of the metta sutta? Sure enough, translations of the metta sutta abound, and almost every (Theravadin) monastery in East…
[This story is part of our Arahant series.] Once, they say, the elder Mahāsīva of ‘Mountainpeak’ lived in the city of Mahagama, in Tissa’s Abbey. There, he taught eighteen groups of young monks in the three baskets – the traditional…