Category: Buddhism

A thera’s ancient remarks on vipassanā

In addition to an earlier post on Ven. Malunkyaputta‘s most interesting analysis of vipassanā meditation (right in front of the Buddha) which clarified what “bare awareness” actually boils down to in terms of meditation practice there is another beautiful personal…

A “religion” of the year 2460 CE

“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience, which refuses dogmatic. If there’s any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism….”[1] said the famous Albert Einstein. Even before…

Surfing on the Wave of Bliss

Imagine you being a surfer. Even if you have never actually surfed, just imagine for a moment standing in the ocean, close to the beach, holding your board in both your hands, looking out at the sea, watching the waves….

I stayed asleep while you were here

All over the Pali canon we can find a frequent recurring pattern in the Buddha’s instruction. First the Buddha would describe a problem – very often he would analyse what that particular problem might cause. Eventually he would offer a…

The Essence

‘‘Ayaṃ loko santāpajāto, This world is filled with sorrow[1] Phassa-pareto rogaṃ vadati attato; Overcome by (sense-)“contact”, it calls a disease its “self” [2] Yena yena hi maññati In what ever terms they imagine it Tato taṃ hoti aññathā. Thereby it…

The Two Pilgrims

From the “Arahant stories” collection: Once, it is said,  two Brahmins sat together in the north Indian city of Patna in a hall and listened to the praise of the virtues of Nāga the elder, a monk from Kālavallimaṇḍapa*. When they…

A leak in your Dhamma boat

Recently, in our local Dhamma study group, we had a look at Kāma Sutta (it’s the older Buddhist version of the Kāma Sutra and besides being much shorter its content is diametrically opposed to the more famous worldy Hindu version…

Thoughts as silent sounds

Here is how it works: Our mind is an empty wrapper. It can encapsulate any of our five senses and replay them. It is like an echo chamber. That’s why thoughts are in essence sense-less. They can contain (better: reflect)…