Often, when we say that there is no self, people get worried, or angry. Their attachment and identification to this idea of a self is so strong that they actually become hostile towards us if we begin to say there is no such thing. We need to explain this a bit, therefore, so that you don’t get mad at us. The idea of a self is common to everyone. Whether we come from the East or the West, we have some kind of idea and belief in a self, every one of us, absolutely; it is a fundamental illusion that arises in all human minds. Indians, Thais, Chinese, everybody, is walking around with this idea of a self, a soul, an atman, or whatever we want to call it.
Beginners
We need to put ourselves into perspective, by Ajahn Sumedho
Existence is something that can strengthen us, rather than weaken us. We need to put ourselves into perspective; we need to see ourselves in terms of the mass as well as in terms of the individual. When we take life on the extreme level of ‘me’ as a person, we forget the common problem that we share with the rest of humanity…
Whom do we Believe? by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
For instance, the Buddha taught that greed, anger, and misunderstanding are the causes that give rise to suffering. If we ourselves are not yet acquainted with greed, anger, and misunderstanding, then there is no way we can believe this. But to believe it would be foolish. When we know ourselves what greed, anger and delusion are like, and that whenever they arise in the mind, they produce suffering like a fire burning us, then we can believe it on the basis of our own experience…
The Three Refuges, by Ajahn Sumedho
The post discusses the underestimated significance of the three Buddhist refuges: Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.
These aren’t merely traditional markers but pointers to reality. They elucidate that refuge in Buddha is mindful awareness, going beyond the body’s confines, potentially accessible to every human being.
Wrinkles, The Universe and All That, by Linda Clark
I never really thought about the ageing process until I was twenty-five and my new employers, the South-Eastern Electricity Board, sent me to London on an induction course. I was a very timid soul in those days and it was… Read More ›
The Real Way by John Aske
These loves, hates, frustrations etc, unpleasant as they seem, are the essential manure out of which the lotus of enlightenment grows and blossoms. And the bigger the clay, the bigger the Buddha, as the Zen men say, so the more and better the manure, the better for the flowering.
Our culture doesn’t encourage too much contemplation on birth and death
We see and know impermanence as a constant. And that is liberating. All the mental suffering about what is going to happen to us, about being this or that person who will eventually disappear, about becoming ‘nothing’, is dissipated and this moment becomes a vast timelessness. The Buddha called it ‘birthlessness’ and ‘deathlessness’, freedom from birth and death…
There is no evil comparable to hatred, by Acharya Shantideva
The causes of happiness rarely occur, whereas the causes for suffering are abundant. Yet without suffering, there is no renunciation. Therefore, mind, stay firm!