It is a sermon not by exhortation, reasoning or threats but by example…
Beginners
Soaked Up, by Trevor Leggett
This is a temple scene. Suddenly in the quiet there is the bursting force of the shrill note of the cicada. It’s ear piercing while it lasts then it stops, and there is the moment when that shrillness is soaked up, soaks away into the stillness of the rocks, the stones, of the temple…
Two Kinds of Language, by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
The word ‘Buddha’, for example, in everyday language refers to the historical enlightened being, Gotama Buddha. It refers to a physical man of flesh and bone that was born in India over two thousand years ago, died, and was cremated.
Considered in terms of dhamma language, however, the word ‘Buddha’ refers to the truth that the historical Buddha realised and taught, the dhamma itself…
Vital Actions by John Peaty
Within the first six months of my coming across Buddhism, I had bought about two dozen Buddha-rupas, Kwan-yins, joss sticks, and enough books to open a library that would rival the one at Eccleston Square. Then I realised that there was more to it than that. I had to do something as well…
The Community, by Arthur Braverman
These intensive meditation retreats, though somewhat mechanical themselves, seem to be designed to awaken you from mechanical, unaware existence. Long and consecutive days of intensive zazen require new ways of dealing with physical and mental pain, boredom, and fear…
Worldly Way And Liberation, by Ajahn Chah
Everything that you do must be done with clarity and awareness. When you see clearly, there will no longer be any need for endurance or for forcing yourself…
Making Friends with the Cement Mixer, by Ajahn Sumedho
Human beings are good-hearted. We want to be good. We feel a lot of joy when opportunities for generosity or selfless action are made available to us. You can see that the love of the good, of the true and the beautiful, is very much part of our humanity…
Discomfort without Aversion: A Little Miracle, by Corrado Pensa
You might remember a famous illustration that the Buddha gives of what a healed mind is like. He said, ‘In what is seen, there is only what is seen. In what is heard, there is only what is heard.’…