Unfortunately, one of the ills of modern society is that it’s in headlong flight from the truth of the human condition, from the fact that we all, without exception, are subject to old age, sickness and death…
Biography
The Mind and its Weather by John Aske
Previously I had lacked the self-awareness to see a passing mood as ‘internal’ without absorbing into it or being absorbed in it, and saw it, for example, as ‘being depressed’…
Burmese scenes from the Life of the Buddha
After six years of hardship, working to find the right spiritual path and practising on his own to seek enlightenment, Prince Siddhartha reached his goal of enlightenment when he was thirty five…
The Last Buddhas of Bamiyan by John Aske
They settled at the crossroads of the ancient eastern world, and from there commanded the silk road between India, China, and the great entrepôt of Balkh, from which the caravans journeyed to Rome and the west…
The Record of Tung-Shan
Earnestly avoid seeking without, lest it recede far from you.
Today I am walking alone, yet everywhere I meet him.
He is now no other than myself, but I am not now him.
It must be understood in this way in order to merge with Suchness.
Tung-Shan
We can always start anew, by Ajahn Sumedho
Emotions can be very convincing, very powerful, like a melodrama. They can sound real and true when they’re going on. But, at that time, there was that which was aware of them; an awareness of those emotions as mental objects was established already. And I trusted in that.
The Long Way Home, by Sun Shuyun
On my journey, I think I found the other side of Buddhism, predominately the role of the mind. Buddhism is not as criticised or attacked in the historical Marxist approach, the materialistic approach which maintains that the mind is really not important and that our material condition determines everything. Some of the monks in the monasteries laid down their lives to defend their faith…
Biographies of Three Books
The idea of writing a biography of a book: what a great idea. Well done Princeton University Press for coming up with ‘Lives of Great Religious Books’. Lives of Great Religious Books is a new series of short volumes that… Read More ›