Contrary to popular belief, meditation isn’t just about sitting crossed-legged, placing our hands on our knees with finger and thumb touching, and chanting “Om” repeatedly. It can be in a yoga class, but this isn’t a yoga class. In Buddhism, meditation is many things: contemplation, awareness, insight, and finding inner …
Through meditation we can do wonderful things. We can overcome our ignorance, delusions, greed, anger, hatred, jealousy, and depression, and enhance our compassion, loving-kindness, happiness, and equanimity. Meditation is the way we can find liberation to escape the bonds of dissatisfaction. A common problem that can come up during meditation …
Many visitors in the West that go to Buddhist temples are in fact not Buddhists. It’s the simple curiosity of what Buddhism is, what Buddhist actually do, and what do they believe in that ignites people’s curiosity to take action. This is a good thing. If people visit a genuine Buddhist …
“What is Buddhism?” is actually a difficult question to answer. Depending on who you ask, where they’re from, what their school/tradition is, and the amount of knowledge and understanding they have, each person will probably have a different answer. A basic answer is this: Buddhism is a religion, a philosophy, …
The Four Noble Truths (catvāri āryasatyāni) is the central doctrine of Buddhism. The Four Truths explain the nature of suffering (dukkha), its causes, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. Our suffering, or unsatisfactoriness, has three main aspects: 1) physical and mental suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death; …
The Noble Eightfold Path (āryāṣṭāṅgamārga) described by the Buddha is the path that leads to the end of suffering. It is a practical guideline for ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing ourselves from the Three Poisons (ignorance, greed, and anger). The Eightfold Path is not a step-by-step …
The Twelve Links (Nidãnas) is one of the most important teachings in Buddhism; it teaches the origin of suffering (dukkha) to be ignorance (avidya). In Buddhism, Dependent Origination is the teaching of how things come to be, are, and cease to be. The Twelve Links show how Dependent Origination ‘works,’ …
The Paramitas (perfections) are a guide for the Mahayana Buddhist. They are virtues to be cultivated to strengthen our practice and bring us to enlightenment. The paramitas describe the True Nature of an enlightened being, which is to say they are our own true nature. We can also say we …
