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…
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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…
Ingredients of insight progress
Even at the 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…
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…
Dassanabhumi – studies in context II
Continuing where I stopped the other day, I was amazed to see the interpretation of the next line of the Sutta Nipata by our alleged Mahakaccayana: ”Paññā ceva sati ca, Nāmarūpañca mārisa; Etaṃ me puṭṭho pabrūhi, katthetaṃ uparujjhatī”ti. ”Yametaṃ pañhaṃ…
Anusayā – studies in context
Caveat: This post is probably very boring for most of you. However, if you manage to read it, you might a.) get a clearer picture of what anusayā (‘latent tendencies’) are and b.) see how one can arrive at filling…
Karma and stock price action
Thinking about karma (pali: kamma), many people entertain a popular notion that your past bad and good karma is similar to a backpack which you carry with you. On occasion the understanding of kamma also comes pretty close to some…
The hidden meaning of ‘yathabhuta’
Yathabhūta — usually translated as ‘as it really is’ — carries a precise, active meaning in the Pali Canon that goes far deeper than the standard rendering. Discover how this key term defines the direct seeing at the heart of insight meditation and the path to liberation.
Lankavatara – reinventing the wheel
This posting, in a way, continues the discussion on whether there can be craving for Nibbana. We concluded that there well can be such a desire, which is more like a motivation for the goal, and the craving for Nibbana…
Reflecting on the Jhana Factors
If you drive back from a peaceful mountain region to the busy town, you can reflect on all the milestones and passing sights either while you drive or when you are back home. Now, of course, watching the scenery while…