There is
in the cosmos
no
secret
place

for one
who has done
an
evil
deed.

Your own self knows, my good man ( Read more... )

"What my father said to me as he was about to die - 'Don't be far-sighted' - 'Don't bear vengeance for a long time' is what he was saying to me as he was about to die. And what he said to me as he was about to die - 'Don't be near-sighted' - 'Don't be quick to break with a friend' is what he was saying to me as he was about to die. And what he said ( Read more... )

Why was the Buddhist coroner fired?

Because he’d always record the cause of death as "birth."

May all beings be happy and free from suffering.

From U. Thittila's translation of the Vibhanga, "According to the teaching expounded by the Buddha, beings, so-called, no matter to which plane of existence they belong, are not possessed of any permanent identity, indiviuality, self, soul or spirit, but are to be considered only as temporary manifestations of several constituents or aggregates ( Read more... )

This (SN 22.57) is a spur to energetic and unceasing devotion to meditation ( Read more... )

Before I took refuge I identified as a run-of-the-mill atheist. Don't get me wrong, I'm still an atheist, but not only the label, but my view of that label occupy a different niche in my life now. My atheism is incidental rather than integral, and my view of labels is "helpful if limited" if only because conventional language, while it has it's use ( Read more... )

Born in a high-ranking family ( Read more... )

Today, I was up early to go with my girlfriend and my aunt to make some offerings to the monks at the nearest temple. We offered fruit and some baked goods. His dhamma talk was excellent ( Read more... )

One of the most persistent criticisms of Buddhism, in fact, the one I hear leveled most often is that the very desire to end desire is a paradox and thus the Blessed One's dhamma-vinaya "refutes itself." This couldn't be further from the truth and is only demonstrative of that particular critic's ignorance of the Pali Canon. The subject comes up ( Read more... )

A few verses for today. I'm working on a longer post for a fellow blogger friend.

( How does one construe? )