Monthly Archives: June 2016

The Dharma is descriptive, never prescriptive. It merely describes conditions, causes, and effects, and presents us with choices. Rather than reacting habitually, we can decide how to act, how to respond. Now, saying “A Buddhist does not harm sentient beings … Continue reading →

We want something, and we don’t get it. We want something, we get it, but it’s not what we expected. We want something, we get it, and it’s just what we expected. Then we lose it. Craving is suffering.

We must not reify emptiness, the antidote to the view of the false self, as if it were an ultimate reality. It is a helpful view, a theory, a skillful means. The Superior Nagarjuna has warned in the Mulamadhyamakakarika, Chapter … Continue reading →

However much you indulge, pleasure does not bring satisfaction. However good things may appear to be, they are not stable or reliable. However things seem to appear, they do not exist in the way that they appear. However much you are attached, that … Continue reading →

In the various legitimate Dharma lineages, there are different valid approaches to Enlightenment. Some are similar, some less so. Some are more analytical, others more practical. Some are more reliant on method, others more so on Buddha Nature. Each of … Continue reading →

From attachment springs fear. For one who is wholly free from attachment there is no grief, whence then fear?   From lust springs grief, from lust springs fear. For one who is wholly free from lust there is no grief; … Continue reading →

The aggregate of form, the material body, tells me where I am. The aggregate of feeling tells me how I am. The aggregate of cognition tells me what I am. The aggregate of volition tells me why I am. The … Continue reading →

We rely on reason to understand reality, but reason only reveals the structure of language and the architecture of the human mind. Our pronouncements about what is real and unreal, possible and impossible, logical and contradictory, say more about the … Continue reading →

In the face of unspeakable horror, I want —I need— to assign blame. I reduce actions to labels. I opt for simple answers. I take sides. I demonize the other. I want to punish the guilty, I want justice.  I … Continue reading →

Surely, whatever form, past, future or present, internal or external, coarse or fine, low or lofty, far or near, all that form must be regarded with proper wisdom, according to reality, thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, … Continue reading →