To see the absence of thought is to master all the dharmas. To see the absence of thought is to embrace all the dharmas…
Photo Metropolitan Museum of art
Pointers to the Ultimate, by Ajahn Sumedho
In any religion there is the exoteric side — the tradition and forms, scriptures, ceremonies and disciplines—and the esoteric, which is the essential nature of that. So, in much of what we call religion, the emphasis is really on the external form.
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…
Self is Heavy, by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
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.
Buddhism now 