4 and 8
How do the 4 jhanas and 4 arupa jhanas relate? You could say that the 4 arupa jhanas are a “modification on the topic” of the fourth jhana or a “variation on the same theme.” They bear its characteristics but…
Category: Dhamma
As a Buddhist. Why meditate?
Some people face these questions: My day-to-day life doesn’t allow me to meditate at all. I have the feeling that I do not progress in my meditation. The retreat was fine, but now all the calmness and serenity is fading…
Knowing the Unknown
Found this very nice Chinese film about the story of Bodhidharma: Bodhidharma (11 parts) The legend of Bodhidharma is a wonderful founding story for Zen a la Chan a la Dhyana a la “Jhana Buddhism”. But in the time of…
Secrecy in the Dhamma?
The following is an email I answered with regard to the last blog entry on the vipassana knowledges. I thought that many people might have the same reservations and would like to share my take on this with you: Well,…
The 4 Jhana
A Howto: Go to a secluded place Close your eyes, take up a meditation topic and concentrate, for example on breathing in and out. Repeat ONE thought, bringing back the mind and trying to “establish” it on this one topic…
Pali Canon Search
… If you want to search through the Buddhist Pali Canon in English, you can use this Google custom search: search.nibbanam.com This is like a meta search engine: Many of the big online sutta repositories complement each other. Using this…
Palikanon Suche in Deutsch / Palikanon search in German
Tonight I launched a new webpage/service on nibbanam.com. It’s a custom Google search for all Buddhist Pali Canon translations in German – something which I had in mind for a long time. I was using site:palikanon.com quite too often and…
Western Theravada
I just found this very interesting letter by Hans Gruber in the Asian Tribune (June 8, 2007) regarding a controversy around the Venerable Nyanatiloka Mahathera. The observations made by Gruber in the following few lines are very notable. I think…