Category Archives: Q&A

Although I am constantly reborn, I am never the same person, and those accumulated experiences are not precisely ‘mine’ ―they are a part of the flux of existence, the mental continuum, but they are not ‘me’. ‘I’ have not lived … Continue reading →

There is much anxiety and restlessness in most persons today, which are symptoms of agitation. The human mind simply cannot process properly the enormous amounts of sensory input to which it is exposed constantly. Thus, although finding the time and … Continue reading →

Appeals to practice the Dharma based on the personal benefits of meditation, emotional balance, patience, behavioral restraint, and loving kindness are misleading, because individual welfare ―while certainly desirable― is not the necessary and sufficient moral reference for spiritual cultivation. If … Continue reading →

There’s no other time than now, so how could we be elsewhere? We’ve always been “here and now” ―there’s nowhere else! Whether we think we are living in the past or in the future, we’ve always been squarely in the … Continue reading →

Being is a verb, an action, an event ―not an entity or a multiplicity of entities. For there to be an ‘eternal self’, it would have to be substantial, permanent, and independent of causes and conditions. No individual self meets those criteria. … Continue reading →

Some argue that during the Buddha Shakyamuni’s lifetime, and indeed in the recent history of Buddhism, there are indications of speciesism, gender inequality, and other shortcomings. The Buddha exemplified how we can manage these discrepancies when He initially rejected the … Continue reading →

All forms of oppression are linked, because all have the same origin: the wrong views of separation and supremacy. When we view our ‘selves’ as separate from others, and believe our interests to be more important or privileged, we are … Continue reading →

In the Dharma traditions, and especially those associated with the Mahayana, or Great Vehicle, ‘Engaged Buddhism’ is not a new trend, whether in its social or environmental manifestations, but has been always present . The ideal of the Bodhisattva, the … Continue reading →

Enlightenment is not an evolutionary attainment. It is the very nature of being. It is ignorance that constitutes an involution, a retrogression from the natural state. It is a temporary subjection to wrong views and afflicted emotions. Because being cannot … Continue reading →

We usually have a very negative concept of freedom. We think that freedom consists in having no one tell us what we can and cannot do. However, freedom means nothing without the capacity to satisfy our needs and attain happiness. … Continue reading →