1. The correct attitude is to be willing to do whatever the Dharma requires, in whatever realm, in whatever aeon. Enlightenment means to see clearly what needs to be done. It is to walk the eightfold path and to know what that means. Yet, as bombu be
A finger pointing at the sky.
Do you know the reason why?
Do you want to live or die?
Do you hear the people cry?
When they come to sing “Hallelujah!”,
riding in the voodoo Sin Street car,
waves come crashing on the harbour bar,
you’ll be swinging on the P
Buddhism praises awareness, especially awareness of presently arisen states. There is a value in being aware of what is arising, being aware of what is persisting, what is fading away. Thus I might notice that a feeling of sadness is arising, or tha
Read more…I have just come back from the conference of Buddhist teachers in Europe. While I was there I heard much discussion about secularisation and how it is necessary to secularise the Dharma in order to make it palatable to modern people. Personally, I am
Read more…QUESTION: What is shunyata?
SHORT ANSWER: Sunyata is the completion of learning
LONGER ANSWER: The important thing is to have the Dharma in your heart. How does this come about? There could be a million different ways. Perhaps something happens in li
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Amida Shu is a form of Pureland Buddhism. It derives from a tradition of Buddhist teaching that started in India, matured in China and flowered in Japan. In all probability to derives mostly from teachings that Buddha gave to lay people. There is, th
THE GOAL
Most people have little or no idea about the goal of Buddhism. When I realised this, I published the book “Not Everything is Impermanent”. Most people said, “But I thought that Buddhism taught that everything is impermanent.” Only those who
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Dragons also take refuge in Amida Buddha. The dragons are proud of their role as defenders of the Dharma. They roar around on their motorbikes and scare off ghosts, demons and anyone who seems to represent a threat. However, all these threats only ex
This morning my homily to the dragons was on kindness. After all, dragons must learn kindness too and they have their special contribution. The Dharma is not just about kind folk remaining kind nor just nice people being nice. Buddha nature will alw
Much of what I have learnt as Buddhism over the years appears to be topsy-turvy. Although there is a well established idea of what Buddhism is, this is deceptive. There is a hidden meaning within Buddhism that most do not see. The hidden meaning is
EMPTINESS
Buddhism talks a good deal about shunyata, emptiness. What is this emptiness? The earliest Buddhist texts provide a psychology of what we could call the point mind - a mind without content. Our modern (and later Buddhist) psychologies speak
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