Recent Posts - page 264

  • Universal Original Purity, by Ajahn Sumedho

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    Amaravati Buddha

    The purity of the moment is in this pure state of awareness. Therefore, you can always refer to it, remember it, just by the simple act of attention, this wide, embracing attention, intuitive awareness in the present. That’s the gate to the deathless, transcendent reality, the unconditioned. It’s not an achievement; you don’t achieve it; you just remember it

  • Clinging to Self, by Bhikkhu PA Payutto

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    Standing Buddha, SriLanka. Photo: © SriLanka Hazel Waghorne Hazel ,

    A fun short story. The moral of this story is: if you want to say ‘there is no one who creates karma,’ you must first learn how to stop saying ‘Ouch!’

  • The Middle Way, by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

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    illustration from Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry

    When the instincts are out of control, they become selfish, and this gives rise to all the defilements. The out-of-control instincts pull the mind off the Middle Way into the dead-end of the kilesa (the mental defilements). This is very important to know…

  • The Development of Loving-kindness

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    Dartington Buddha

    Just as the radiance of all the stars does not equal a sixteenth part of the moon’s radiance, but the moon’s radiance surpasses them and shines forth, bright and brilliant, even so, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future birth, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of the mind-release of loving-kindness…

  • Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry

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    Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry

    Occasional book review, ‘The Handbook of Iconometry’

  • Five Spiritual Powers, by Mahesi Caplan

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    Short film (18mins) on Awakening: The Five Spiritual Powers (Faith, Energy, Mindfulness, Serenity, and Wisdom), by Mahesi Caplan.

  • Direct Knowing, by Ajahn Sumedho

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    Cambodia Photo © Janet Novak

    Now the Buddha was a sage who tried to convey a particular teaching that would encourage the realization of ultimate reality. And the teaching of the Buddha sometimes baffles modern humanity because it does seem somewhat strange to our way of thinking; we are used to regarding religion from the point of view of being told something. A sage, or philosopher, or some prophet tells us something, and we either agree with it or not…

  • Dreams: The Forest of the Night, by John Aske

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    Butterfly on Blue Flowers.

    ‘I suppose very few of us have passed through even a short period of existence without having noticed the different qualities of dreams. There are those that are evanescent; then there are those that possess you and you can’t shake off; and yet others that may be the urge of your life—its guiding star. Nor can the most superficial fail to observe how dreams and life react on one another.’