Contrary to popular assumption, the thought world of the Pali discourses is well populated with gods and spirits, demons and ghosts, as picturesque as the imagination of a reader of Tolkien’s novels could wish for.

On how the Pāḷi Suttas embrace Brahmā, and not.

when the thread of the warp is stretched out
And the weft is woven through, back and forth
In the end the thread runs out:
Like this is the life of mortals.

In Sarvāstivādin and Mūlasarvāstivādin circles the Udānavarga was as popular as is the Dhamma-pada in Theravādin circles, and it circulated widely in South and Central Asia.

Collectively, the 12 eligible studies suggest that incorporating the Buddhist wisdom practices of contemplating interdependence, emptiness, and perspective-taking on self and others may enhance prosocial behaviour through various mechanisms, such as (i) developing a sense of interdependence and common humanity, (ii) fostering the altruistic desire to help others, and (iii) experiencing a state of oneness. However, concerns were raised about the overuse and reliability of self-report measures for accurately assessing prosocial behaviour

those wanderers who followed other religions, unable to bear the esteem of the mendicant Sangha, abused, attacked, harassed, and troubled the mendicants…

How a wise meditator views abusive speech.

Theories of consciousness are not ethically neutral.

Peter Hershock makes his case for a Yogacara-inspired view of consciousness, especially in the face of emergent technologies.

One cannot arrive at a conception of good without “looking before and after”. It introduces the question of palliative or cure.

A Buddhist response to Western accusations of being insufficiently interested in social welfare.

… right by my child’s half-eaten flesh.

The Nibbāna element with residue remaining (Sōpādisesa Nibbāna) and the Nibbāna element with no residue remaining (Anupādisesa Nibbāna).

This not being, that is not;
from the cessation of this, that ceases.

The Buddha, soon after awakening, utters this famous and pithy summary of the Dhamma.

Since thoughts are produced by what is not-self, how could they be self?

… freed by not grasping: they are well freed. Those who are well freed are consummate ones. For consummate ones, there is no cycle of rebirths to be found.

How the Four Noble Truths illuminate the Five Aggregates.

‘What does your teacher say, what does he teach?’ Being asked thus, friends, you should answer: ‘Our teacher, friends, teaches the removal of desire and lust.’

A number of mendicants are heading for lands West, but the Buddha advises them to speak with Sāriputta before they go. Sāriputta teaches them how to reply to inquiries into their beliefs.

These four noble truths are real, not unreal, with no alteration. That is why they are called ‘noble truths.’

They discuss: past-life recollection, Western scientific methods in relation to rebirth, and whether a practitioner needs to believe in rebirth to attain awakening.

This essay is in particular a response to Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi’s thoughtful critique of this position.

If something is interdependent, it is necessarily emptiness.

In this short teaching, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo summarizes five logical arguments of Nagarjuna’s Mādhyamaka (Middle Way).

Formerly, Anurādha, and also now, I teach just suffering and the cessation of suffering.

Venerable Anurādha is questioned by a number of ascetics, and ends up by saying that the Realized One is described in terms other than “existing after death” and so on. The wanderers say he’s a fool, so he checks with the Buddha, who says that a Realized One is not even apprehended in this life, so how can he be described after death?

Ven. Sunyo on D&D makes a compelling argument that the Buddha’s final statement here is meant categorically, not pedagogically.

The teaching of rebirth crops up almost everywhere in the Canon, and is so closely bound to a host of other doctrines that to remove it would virtually reduce the Dhamma to tatters.

In this article, Bhikkhu Bodhi explains how rebirth is an intelligible view, both intrinsically and in terms of the Dhamma, and how the concept of rebirth can help a person make better sense of the world. It is further shown how the concept of rebirth is crucial if the Dhamma is to be a consistent set of teachings. The Venerable approaches the topic from three philosophical standpoints: the ethical, the ontological, and the soteriological.

Kamma gives us opportunities to learn.

In his usual wit and humor, Ajahn Brahm explains the functioning of kamma in our daily lives and its relation to the various rebirths one can have.

I declare, Vaccha, rebirth for one with fuel, not for one without fuel.

The Buddha explains his position on rebirth, including how the state between rebirths is possible.

Once upon a time, I was a seer called Rohitassa of the Bhoja people. I was a sky-walker with psychic powers. I was as fast as a light arrow easily shot across the shadow of a palm tree…

… there’s no making an end of suffering without reaching the end of the world. For it is in this fathom-long carcass with its perception and mind that I describe the world, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.

For Venerable Ānanda’s exegesis of this sutta, see SN 35.116.

When, bhikkhus, a noble disciple has clearly seen with correct wisdom as it really is this dependent origination and these dependently arisen phenomena, it is impossible that he will run back into the past, thinking: ‘Did I exist in the past? Did I not exist in the past? What was I …’

… the suffering that’s over and done with is more, what’s left is tiny.

For someone who has seen the truth (i.e. attained Stream Entry), the suffering eliminated is comparable to the Himalayas; what remains is just seven bits of gravel.

Astikāya is merely a formal variation of the same word we know as sakkāya. So it seems clear it was a term the Buddha drew from the Jains, or from the ascetic teachers more generally.

Astikāya means “existent substance” or “ontological category”.

We can draw upon this, and keep a broad consistency with the handling of astikāya in Jainism, by rendering sakkāya as “substance” or “substantial reality”, and sakkāyadiṭṭhi as “substantialist view”

… with liberation as proximate cause, the knowledge of destruction.

A “tremendously important” sutta showing how liberation is also governed by the law of Dependent Origination.

For Bhikkhu Bodhi’s commentary on this sutta, see Transcendental Dependent Arising.

But, bhikkhus, when a Tathagata arises in the world, an Arahant, a Perfectly Enlightened One, then there is the manifestation of great light and radiance; then no blinding darkness prevails, no dense mass of darkness…

Therefore, bhikkhus, an exertion should be made to understand…

As the dawn precedes the sunrise, right view precedes the penetration of the four noble truths.

Bhikkhus, just as a stick thrown up into the air falls now on its bottom, now on its top, so too beings roam and wander on…

Beings who have not seen the four noble truths roam on from one birth to another, like a stick thrown end over end.

who wants to listen, memorizes the teachings, examines their meaning, and practices accordingly, and is diligent when it comes to skillful qualities can expect growth, not decline, in skillful qualities, whether by day or by night.

At Naḷakapāna the Buddha invites Sāriputta to teach. He speaks of ten qualities that lead to decline or non-decline.

…when one dwells contemplating danger in things that can fetter, there is no descent of consciousness…

Rebirth illustrated with the simile of a tree.

… wine at minimum conduces to madness

The karmic results of breaking the five precepts.

We have this tendency to jump to conclusions…

A conversation about the Chankī Sutta and how to cultivate the path in a polarized world.

It’s not what you believe. It’s what you do.

He understands thus: ‘Formerly there was greed which was bad, and now there is none, which is good. Formerly there was hate, which was bad, and now there is none, which is good. Formerly there was delusion, which was bad, and now there is none, which is good.’ So here and now in this very life he is parched no more

How to navigate among different spiritual opinions.

Data analyses showed that Buddhists were more likely to attribute bad outcomes to internal, stable, and global causes, but their well-being was less affected by it. Thus, these results indicate that the “depressive” attributional style is not that depressive for Buddhists, after all.

Buddhism focuses less on the issue of why evil and its incumbent suffering are present in the world and more on the question of how to respond to that evil.

This emphasis on soteriology over metaphysics is seen in the characteristic invocation of pragmatic criteria for the evaluation of doctrines and practices; the recurrent motif of the Buddha as therapist rather than theorist; and the pervasive influence of the meta-theory of upāya (expedients or stratagems). This article will examine the soteriological dimension of the broader Buddhist response to evil and explore some of the explicit examinations of the problem of a Buddhist “theodicy” in later Mahāyāna monistic ontologies, which are explored in Korean Buddhist materials: viz., if the mind is innately enlightened or inherently pure, whence do ignorance or defilements arise?

Whatever you conceive it to be
It turns out to be otherwise
For that is what is false in it:
The ephemeral is deceptive by nature.

When a mendicant meditates rightly contemplating a pair of teachings in this way—diligent, keen, and resolute—they can expect one of two results: enlightenment in the present life or, if there’s something left over, non-return.

While the world perpetually evades conceptual understanding, not all dualities are misleading. This sutta teaches ways to contemplate the duality of the origination and cessation of stress so as to reach the liberating non-conceptual understanding of the way things are

Standing to one side, that deity recited this verse…

We think our attachments bring us happiness, but they really bring sorrow.

These brighten up the heavens
Where they’ve been reborn.

The Buddha is asked about the future destiny of people who are generous—and not.

I don’t expect everyone to give up all of these things, but there’s no other way.

… mendicants, live as your own island, your own refuge, with no other refuge. Let the teaching be your island and your refuge

After the passing of Sāriputta and Moggallāna (whose actual death is unrecorded in the canon), the Buddha says the Saṅgha looks empty; yet he is not sad.

… life as a human is short, brief, and fleeting, full of suffering and distress. Be thoughtful and wake up! Do what’s good and lead the spiritual life, for no-one born can escape death.

Araka was a famous teacher long ago, when the life span was much greater than today. Nevertheless, he still taught impermanence; how much more is it relevant to us today.

Kokālika has been reborn in the Pink Lotus hell because of his resentment for Sāriputta and Moggallāna.

A follower of Devadatta slanders Ven. Sāriputta and Ven. Moggallāna and, after suffering a painful disease, dies. The sutta then gives a graphic description of the sufferings awaiting him in hell.

Remember me, brahmin, as a Buddha.

The brahmin Doṇa is filled with wonder when he sees the Buddha’s footprints.

Luminous, monks, is the mind.

Even if a thousand mighty princes and great archers,
well trained, with strong bows,
were to completely surround me;
I would never flee.

The early Saṅgha’s foremost poet praises the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha and rouses us to practice.

All suffering is fully understood,
craving, its cause, has been made to wither…

Someone with six qualities is able to enter the sure path

Things that enable or obstruct true understanding while listening to the teachings.

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert….

… this world of ours, when seen as part of the universe, is as tiny as a grain of sand

Every phenomena is changing. It must have a cause.

A lengthy introduction to Buddhist philosophy.

… the Buddha confined himself to asserting statements which were true and useful, though pleasant or unpleasant, so that the Dhamma is pragmatic, although it does not subscribe to a pragmatic theory of truth.

A short introduction to early Buddhist epistemology from its preeminent, modern scholar.

My object in discussing the three themes of the ancient Teaching is to invite all sincerely, seriously investigating people to question deeply the so-called “given realities” of our lives and to reflect thoroughly on the nature and predicament of our existence.

This book is intended to give a basic understanding of taking refuge to those who are new to the Buddhist path, and to bring greater understanding to those already acquainted with it.

Does this twin-category process pluralism avoid the problems of substance-dualism?

… not understanding and not comprehending the Noble Truth of suffering, both you and I have wandered and journeyed in this cycle of birth and death for a very long time

… dwell with yourselves as your own island, with yourselves as your own refuge

For the conclusion, read the very next sutta: SN 47.14.

This Tibetan text is itself a translation of the Sanskrit version.

Theravada, like any religious tradition, has evolved and changed over the years.

… some major points of distinction between Early Buddhism and Theravada

If anyone were to learn his dhamma for the purpose of censuring or reproaching others who held different views with feelings of hostility, or for the purpose of defending one’s own dogma against the criticism of others, the Buddha says that they make an abuse of the dhamma.

… to increase awareness among Buddhists of their own rich heritage of religious and ethical thinking as well as to increase understanding among non-Buddhists of the fundamental values and principles of Buddhism. It seeks to strike a balance between what is common to the Buddhist traditions and the diversity of perspectives among them.

… if the Buddha exhorts his disciples to take attā and Dhamma as an island and refuge, those two terms, dhamma and attā, denote the same reality. This identity […] is highly problematic

A straightforward refutation of the absurd claim that a famous idiom of the Buddha contradicts the central doctrine of non-self.

We may begin with one simple list, but the structure of early Buddhist thought and literature dictates that we end up with an intricate pattern of lists within lists

Those who wanted to uphold the radical non-substantialist position of early Buddhism were faced with the dual task of responding to the enormously substantialist and absolutist think­ing of the non-Buddhist traditions as well as to those within the Buddhist tradition who fell prey to such thinking.

… a consolidation of thirty years of research and reflection on early Buddhism as well as on some of the major schools and philosophers associated with the later Buddhist tradi­tions

How is a sentient being defined?

Rādha asks the Buddha, who compares craving and rebirth to a child playing with sandcastles.

If a person has faith, they preserve truth by saying, ‘Such is my faith.’ But they don’t yet come to the definite conclusion: ‘This is the only truth, other ideas are silly.’

The Buddha instructs a Brahmin on the right way to talk about religion and how to make our way through the thicket of views to arrive at the truth.

Indeed, I have long been tricked, cheated, and defrauded by this mind.

A fun and surprising sutta in which a bumbling but faithful Brahmin is set straight.

Wisdom and consciousness–these things are mixed, not separate. And you can never completely dissect them

Venerable Sāriputta deftly defines a bewildering array of terms.

I have taught the Dhamma compared to a raft, for the purpose of crossing over, not for the purpose of holding onto. Understanding the Dhamma as taught compared to a raft, you should let go even of Dhammas, to say nothing of non-Dhammas.

In this famous and much-celebrated sutta, the Buddha teaches how to properly grasp Buddhist philosophy so as not to lead to more suffering.

One should not neglect wisdom, should preserve truth, should cultivate relinquishment, and should train for peace.

A monk spends the evening in a barn with the Buddha, who rewards the well-mannered disciple with an elaborate and profound discourse on the path and its fruit.

… by depending and relying on the six kinds of joy based on renunciation, abandon and surmount the six kinds of joy based on the household life

The Buddha gives a discourse on the six sense bases, culminating in a unique statement of the Buddha’s own basis of equanimity while teaching.

He doesn’t assume consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness.

The Buddha gives a long discourse on the five aggregates ending in his own repudiation of the idea that not-self contradicts the law of karma.

You can find part two of the video here.

When a space is enclosed by sticks, creepers, grass, and mud it becomes known as a ‘building’. In the same way, when a space is enclosed by bones, sinews, flesh, and skin it becomes known as a ‘form’.

The Venerable Sāriputta shows how all of the teachings fit inside the Four Noble Truths.

Sāriputta is able to teach, assert, establish, clarify, analyze, and reveal the four noble truths.

Bhikkhus, before my enlightenment, while I was still only an unenlightened Bodhisatta, I too, being myself subject to birth, sought what was also subject to birth

The Buddha’s own spiritual autobiography, from searching to finding true deliverance.

About a third of the suttas have been made available for free by the publisher under a Creative Commons License and have been collected into this open source booklet for your consideration. Furthermore, the rest of the book can be read on their website for free if you sign up for a (free) account.

The original draft of the book by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli can be found online as either his handwritten notes or as an incomplete, typed manuscript.

Whatever does not belong to you and does not belong to others, these things should quickly be eradicated and relinquished.

A clever Bhikkhu quickly understands a pithy teaching.

Reverends, all things are rooted in desire. Attention produces them.

The Buddha gives an extraordinary ten-point summary of the path from things to the cessation of things.

Basically, I wanna know

The world is led by craving,
By craving it is defiled,
And craving is that one thing
Controlled by which all follow.

I have never yet had the question why good things happen.

Robina Courtin talks about how to teach the theory of karma to Westerners.

A good sutta is one that inspires you to stop reading it.

A few words of advice on how to read the Suttas.

Your ability to stick with these qualities is what’s going to help them grow. When you notice yourself wandering off, ardency means that you bring the mind right back. If it wanders off again, bring it back again. You don’t give up.

Book number four in Ajahn Geoff’s famous Meditations series, on breath meditation and how to approach the practice.

Insofar as it disintegrates, it is called the ‘world.’

To be female is to have the dukkha of a female. To be male is to have the dukkha of a male. […] If we deludedly think ‘I am happy’ then we must suffer accordingly.

In these three dhamma talks on emptiness delivered at Siriraj Hospital (Bangkok) in 1961, Ajahn Buddhadasa cuts right to the heart of Buddhism, encouraging us in plain and vivid language to stop identifying as or clinging to anything at all.

When Westerners come to Buddhism, they usually approach it through the doors of psychology, history of religions, or perennial philosophy, all of which are dominated by Romantic ways of thinking.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu takes us on a long tour of Romantic philosophy before eventually showing how Romantic sensibilities affected the reception of Buddhism in the West. Most helpful is his list in chapter 7 where he outlines specifically the differences he sees between Buddhism and Western Romanticism.

Even if you ultimately disagree with Ajahn Geoff’s analysis, this is still an important work to engage with seriously, as it forces a direct confrontation with Western religious assumptions and motivations.

… at an earlier time references to the four noble truths in this and other discourses may have been without the qualification ‘noble’

An example of the minor differences to be found between the Āgamas and their Pāli Parallels.

So, keep on practicing. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ll have to reap results, there’s no doubt about it.

An intimate letter of encouragement, helpful for meditators who haven’t yet entered the insight path.

They are the mature ones, the old campaigners of saṃsāra, who have had their fill of loving and hating. They are beginning to feel instinctively that freedom lies in letting go. It is to such people really that the Buddha spoke. The rest merely happened to be present

An rousing collection of essays on the urgent need for wisdom.

This translation had a large impact on Pāli scholarship, being the first reliable and beautiful translation of the book in English. Every translation since (and there have been many!) is deeply indebted to Venerable Buddharakkhita’s thoughtful rendering, now available for free through the generosity of the BPS.

Note, an editted version of this article appears as chapter two of From Craving to Liberation.

… deliverance from saṃsāra, i.e., the sorrow-laden round of existence, cannot consist in the re-absorption into an eternal Absolute which is at the root of all manifoldness, but can only be achieved by a complete extinguishing of all factors which condition the processes constituting life and world.

The ignorant dullard who creates acquisition
encounters suffering again and again.
Therefore, understanding, one should not create acquisition, of contemplating it as the genesis and origin of suffering.

Ordinary and Enlightened beings contrasted, with intimations of the path between the two.

a perilous flood has arisen,
for those oppressed by old age and death,
let me declare an island to you.
Owning nothing, taking nothing:
this is the island with nothing further.
I call this [island] ‘nibbāna,’
the extinction of old age and death.

How to recognize an emancipated person.

Yeah, we’re locked up in ideas
We like to label everything
Well, I’m just gonna do here
What I gotta do here
‘Cause I gotta keep myself free

A fun anthem on ignoring the haters, and on not taking words too seriously.

The life enriched by meditation is three dimensional: it’s not a completely different realm, it’s providing a new and clearer perspective.

In meditation we have this delicious, wonderful experience of being nobody… It’s boring. That’s the point… You can’t expect to feel inspired all the time… [But] remember that all of those great monks and nuns and teachers, they all started off — every one of them — with confused minds. They weren’t pure and peaceful right from the beginning. They got where they are through effort. And there’s no reason why you can’t put forth that same effort.

A dhamma talk at Cittarama (Malaysia) on the purpose of meditation.

It’s interesting to walk through the graveyards of towns, and see that for the first few years after a person dies there may be a head stone, maybe someone remembers, but after twenty, thirty, or forty years, they could bulldoze the graves because the land is so valuable and plant somebody else in there. So even your head stone just crumbles to dust. All record of you living here is gone, because no one remembers who you were or what you did. Isn’t that beautiful? So why not do that right now? Bulldoze this idea of who you are

It is possible to know the original intent of our sacred literature.

An impassioned defense of mythology and orthodoxy in the modern world.

Sensual pleasures give little gratification and much suffering and distress, and they are all the more full of drawbacks. Even though a noble disciple has clearly seen this with right wisdom, so long as they don’t achieve the rapture and bliss that are apart from sensual pleasures and unskillful qualities, or something even more peaceful than that, they might still return to sensual pleasures.

A lay person is puzzled at how, despite their long practice, they still have greedy or hateful thoughts. The Buddha explains the importance of absorption for letting go. But he also criticizes self-mortification, and recounts a previous dialog with some Jain ascetics.

Find another translation by Bhante Sujato on SuttaCentral.

For the more straightforward analysis of the Path, see SN 45.8.

And even those disciples of his who fall out with their companions in the holy life and abandon the training to return to the low life—even they praise the Master and the Dhamma and the Sangha; they blame themselves instead of others, saying: “We were unlucky, we have little merit”

The ascetic Sakuludāyin is amazed at how revered the Buddha is by his disciples, and the Buddha explains why his disciples love and respect him so dearly:

Udāyin, when my disciples have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, prey to suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering, and I satisfy their minds

The Buddha then goes on to enumerate in detail the path of tranquility meditation and its fruits, including several uncommon lists, such as the eight liberations and the ten kasiṇas, the perfection of which is the ultimate reason the Sangha honors and respects their teacher.

Note that the “uncommon lists” here aren’t found in this sutta’s Chinese parallel and are somewhat out of proportion to the rest of the sutta, suggesting that they are late additions.

… in Burma the book has actually been included in the Sutta Piṭaka itself, as part of the Khuddaka Nikāya or Miscellaneous Collection. Although the Buddhists of the other Theravāda countries have not gone quite so far in expressing their esteem, in all those lands where the Pali Tipiṭaka reigns supreme the Milindapañhā stands just behind it as a weighty textual source

Gain and loss, disrepute and fame,
blame and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions that people meet
are impermanent, transient, and subject to change.

The eight worldly conditions in brief.

Mendicants, these seven perceptions, when developed and cultivated, are very fruitful and beneficial. They culminate in the deathless and end with the deathless. What seven? The perceptions of ugliness, death, repulsiveness of food, dissatisfaction with the whole world, impermanence, suffering in impermanence, and not-self in suffering.

… this is the nature of a person accomplished in view. Though they might manage a diverse spectrum of duties for their spiritual companions, they still feel a keen regard for the training in higher ethics, higher mind, and higher wisdom.

The Buddha taught the reluctant, quarrelling monks of Kosambi to develop themselves in love and harmony, reminding them of the higher aspirations for which they ordained.

Master Gotama, what is the cause and condition why human beings are seen to be inferior and superior?

The Buddha explains to a brahmin how your deeds in past lives affect you in this life.

The ghosts who lust for our dedication [of merits] are like beggars. Only a tiny fraction of the merits we have accumulated can be shared with them

An eye is a dangerous thing. Left unguarded and misunderstood it unleashes a world “out there” that we become infatuated with, to our detriment. When we understand fully that the eye, the world and the interface between them are fabricated, the world ends, the infatuation ends, saṃsāra ends.

There is, monks, an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned.

The escape from conditions exists.

See also, Iti 43.

All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a reflection, a shadow, or a flash of lightning, or a few drops on the morning grass. So, for example, by the time you see the flash of lightning, it’s already gone. In no time, it’s come from somewhere and it’s gone somewhere else. You see it, and it’s gone. Which is to say that the world is something that you can see and experience but you can’t obtain or possess it.

Beside the creek, one can forget language altogether and watch meaning slip away with the current. It is humbling and awe-inspiring to merge into the creekside, just another natural formation.

… the Bhikkhu Sangha alone can ordain women as bhikkhunis, based on the Buddha’s statement: “I allow you, bhikkhus, to ordain Bhikkhunis.” This allowance was never rescinded by the Buddha.

In the context of Christian missionary activity, it seems again entirely natural that rebirth is seen as one type of belief that needs to be replaced with another belief, which in this case is belief in an almighty god. However, the perception of the rebirth doctrine as a belief to be either accepted on faith or else rejected does not seem to capture fully the position this doctrine occupies in early Buddhist thought.

… while the Theravādins have preserved the clearest and best-understood early texts referring to the in-between state, their philosophical posture prevented them from investigating and describing this in any detail. For that we shall have to listen to the other schools, starting with the Puggalavādins and Sarvāstivādins, as passed down through the Chinese and Tibetan traditions.

A passionate and compelling argument for both “the bardo” (as it’s popularly known) and for contemporary, comparative scholarship.

During my first weeks with my teacher, Ajaan Fuang, I began to realize that he had psychic powers.

The key principle in Buddhism is that understanding sets you free. It’s not about attaining or creating anything, it’s about simply understanding things as they are

In general, we humans are a self-interpreting species for whom the practice of recollecting and redescribing ourselves is a crucial necessity. For us the reconstruction of identity is a continuous process wherein the past is selectively crafted into a history. It is a creative and self-constitutive exercise. We come to know each other and ourselves not by exchanging resumes (mere inventories of events), but by telling our stories. And our stories change as we do; they reflect what actually happened and what we think is worth remembering, they reflect who we were, who we are, and who we would like to become.

An impassioned defense of asking big questions, especially in the context of our postmodern search for meaning.

Seeing this, a learned noble disciple grows disillusioned with the eye, sights, eye consciousness, eye contact, feeling, and craving. Being disillusioned, desire fades away. When desire fades away they’re freed.

And once we become familiar with the nature of objects, because of seeing that, one sees the implications — “this thing that I’m basing my happiness on is uncertain, is subject to change, is going to pass away”

Ayya Vayama Bhikkhuni explains how we progress on the path through renunciation and what progress means for our experience of painful feelings.

… a young tender infant lying prone does not even have the notion ‘identity,’ so how could identity view arise in him?

A little baby has no wrong views or intentions, but the underlying tendency for these things is still there. Without practicing, they will inevitably recur.

… how lust, hatred, delusion and other negative emotions are considered to cause physical and mental pain among [unenlightened beings]

My favorite part of this lovely article is its subtle normalization of the ariya and pathologizing of puthujjanas—a rhetorical flip from our usual conceptualization that I hope catches on!

The heart which is not controlled by a kammaṭṭhāna is liable to the arising of “outgoing exuberance” throughout life […which] has been the enemy of all beings for countless ages, and a person who wants to subdue the “outgoing exuberance” of his own heart will need to compel his heart to take the medicine – which is the kammaṭṭhāna.

While the book’s title goes against the usual presentation of “sila, samādhi, [then] paññā,” the idea that “wisdom develops samādhi” is supported by such suttas as SN 48.45.

The First Noble Truth is not: ‘I am suffering and I want to end it.’ The insight is, ‘There is suffering’. Now you are looking at the pain or the anguish you feel not from the perspective of ‘It’s mine’ but as a reflection: ‘There is suffering, this dukkha’. It is coming from the position of ‘the Buddha seeing the Dhamma.’ The insight is simply the acknowledgement that there is this suffering without making it personal.

This small booklet was compiled and edited from talks given by Venerable Ajahn Sumedho on the central teaching of the Buddha

Then one day, [the young man] utters these three words. When the young lady hears this, she trembles, because it is such an important statement. When you say something like that with your whole being, not just with your mouth or your intellect, but with your whole being, it can transform the world. A statement that has such power of transformation is called a mantra.

A lucid and concise explanation of emptiness and interdependence beautifully tailored to his American audience, this book is based on a lecture Thay delivered at the Green Gulch Zen Center, in Muir Beach, California on April 19, 1987.

Note that, pace the title, this philosophy is not what the Buddha taught “as it is” but is rather the Pāli as interpreted by the commentarial tradition.

In this sutta, a bhikkhu named Sāti promulgates the pernicious view that consciousness transmigrates from life to life. The Buddha reprimands him with a lengthy discourse on dependent origination, explaining that all phenomena of existence arise and cease through conditions.

See also, Bhante Suddhaso’s translation of this sutta

“The person” has to be killed before one can be an arahant. If what we call “the person” has not been killed, there is no way one can be an arahant.

Transcribed from talks delivered to the students of Thammasat University in Bangkok in 1966, this short and readable series of question-and-answers gives a lucid corrective to many popular misconceptions and questions about Buddhism.

It is wrong perception that leads to the concepts of being and nonbeing.

To approach what, for the want of a better term, we call the mythic portions of the Nikāyas with the attitude that such categories as “mythic symbol” and “literally true” are absolutely opposed is to adopt an attitude that is out of time and place. It seems to me that in some measure we must allow both a literal and a psychological interpretation. Both are there in the texts.

Note that I (~KhBh) have removed pages 206–210 from the linked PDF as they contain a lengthy and irrelevant digression into Mahāyāna doctrine. If you’re interested, you can find the full article here.

… conditioned phenomena have these three characteristics…

The difference between the conditioned and the unconditioned.

We wouldn’t say “this is proof of reincarnation,” but I would say it’s strong evidence of something like it.

Let’s consider how a person, me, arises in your experience. First certain colors and shapes arise, largely maroon. A sense of foreboding ensues. The features arise: “monk,” “shaveling,” then the discernment “worthy of offerings.” The features arise: “wire-rimmed glasses,” “wry grin” and finally “Bhikkhu Cintita,” then the discernment “maybe not so worthy of offerings.” At some point in this process you are convinced that I exist

… beings are intoxicated with life and engage in misconduct by body, speech, and mind. But when one often reflects upon [death], the intoxication with life is diminished.

Topics that are worth regularly reflecting on, whether as a lay person or a renunciant.

One should rein in the mind thus

One should restrain the senses like a farmer watching over a field. The Buddha gives the parable of a man bewitched when he first hears a lute. He takes apart the instrument in search of the sound, but is disillusioned when no sound is found.

Now suppose that in the autumn—when it’s raining in fat, heavy drops—a water bubble were to appear & disappear on the water, and a man with sight were to see it. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a bubble? In the same way, a man with wisdom sees a feeling. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a feeling?

The Buddha gives a series of similes for the aggregates: physical form is like foam, feeling is like a bubble, perception is like a mirage, choices are like a coreless tree, and consciousness is like an illusion.

It is, Ānanda, because it is empty of self and of what belongs to self that it is said, ‘Empty is the world.’

Protecting oneself, bhikkhus, one protects others; protecting others, one protects oneself.

For an audio recording of this sutta, see this entry.

Just as two sheaves of reeds might stand leaning against each other, so too, with name-and-form as condition, consciousness comes to be; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form comes to be.

Venerables Mahākoṭṭhita and Sāriputta discuss whether the factors of dependent origination are created by oneself, another, both, or by chance.

Mendicants, there are these seven kinds of wealth. What seven? The wealth of faith, ethical conduct, conscience, prudence, learning, generosity, and wisdom.

Have you seen the variegated and different colours of a caraṇa bird?

The Buddha encourages the monks to investigate the five aggregates, giving a few colorful similes to illustrate their nature.

Why now do you assume ‘a being’? Mara, is that your speculative view? This is a heap of sheer formations: Here no being is found.

Māra asks the nun Vajirā about who has created this being. Recognizing him, she points out that the word “being” is nothing more than a convention used to designate the aggregates, just as the word “cart” is used when its parts are assembled.

“Is what is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, this I am, this is my self’?”–“No, venerable sir.”

In the Deer Park at Varanasi the Buddha teaches the famous second discourse, on not-self with regard to the aggregates, to the group of five monks. At the conclusion, they become fully enlightened.

The person who’s to their body-cave
Clouded by many moods…

Those who remain attached to the body, to sensuality, and to their sense of “mine” will have a hard time freeing themselves from fear of death and from further rebirths.

Monks! All is aflame!

The “all” consisting of the six interior and exterior sense fields, that is. This is the famous “third sermon” taught at Gayā’s Head to the followers of the three Kassapa brothers.

How does a person both make a hole and live in it?

Four people similar to mice.

Our body is not life, but just a house. Life is energy. The coming together of mental, kammic and cosmic forces — that is life.

Consistent precedence given to the development of contentment during all activities as well as when settling down for formal meditation goes a long way in preparing the ground for what is, in a way, the direct result of contentment: a mind that is happily settled within and therefore able to gain deep concentration.

Part two of Anālayo’s “excursions,” he continues to explore key Pāli terms, this time exploring Upādāna, Sakkāyadiṭṭhi, Sammādiṭṭhi, Saṅkhārā, Vitakka, Yoniso Manasikāra, Vipassanā, Samatha & Vipassanā, Samādhi, Viveka, Vossagga, and Suññatā.

These two complementary perspectives on happiness — distinguishing between unwholesome and wholesome types and treating the stages of development of its wholesome manifestations — run like a red thread through the entire compass of the teachings in the Pāli discourses, from instructions on basic morality through the path of mental purification all the way up to full awakening.

Bhikkhu Anālayo analyzes a dozen key doctrinal terms in depth: exploring their meaning, nature, imagery and importance.

Discriminatory views and practices are the antithesis of Right View, and they undermine the Middle Path by perpetuating identification with concepts of independent, constant, inherently existing selves and others

A brief outline of the discrimination faced by women across the Buddhist world, and a thoroughly cited argument for rejecting sexist views, even those that can be found in the Buddhist Canon.

A very famous example of poetic analysis and hermeneutics in action at the time of the Buddha, this sutta gives several subtle cues on how to read obscure passages.

Walpola Rahula’s book has had a dramatic impact on the shape of Buddhist thought in the West but its interest is far from merely historical: it remains one of the most lucid and sympathetic introductions available in English, even today. Recommended for newcomers to Buddhism or anyone looking for a solid grounding in Buddhist doctrine.

You can also find the book read out loud on YouTube, or you can order a physical copy of the book for free by contacting the Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation.

An open-source version can be read online for free at Reading Faithfully or via the links compiled online, but the real book is still recommended for its helpful redactions and notes.

… when counterfeit dhamma appears, the true Dhamma disappears, in the same way that when counterfeit money appears, true money disappears.

As Buddhism spread around Asia, many new teachings were introduced, and some of them miss the mark. Today, as all remaining traditions have their share of shady teachers, deity cults, and doctrinal confusion, Ajahn Geoff reminds us that we have to be discerning where we place our faith.

We have to practice step by step to attain succeeding levels of happiness, starting with the happiness that arises from giving, to the happiness from keeping the precepts, not hurting others, to the happiness from samadhi or mental discipline.

A simple and straightforward but powerful summary of the path to wisdom encouraging us all to strive for real, lasting happiness.

Co-incidence of two phenomena, even when repeated, does not mean that one phenomenon is the cause of the other. To claim that activity in the brain causes awareness, or mind, is plainly unscientific.

Ajahm Brahm explains how science can be dogmatic and religion scientific.

We’ve got these defilements, they are within us and they keep coming up all the time. They act like demons. They cause one trouble the whole time. So one does the meditation practice and it’s quite hard work for quite a long time, but steadily the results come. Bit by bit they come.

Ajahn Pañña has a light-hearted but sincere discussion on the fundamentals of Buddhism one evening in Thailand.

When you are repelled by everything, there is nothing to grasp onto and craving becomes impossible.

Ajahn Brahmali explains how ethics and meditation lead to enlightenment.

The fire of lust burns mortals; Infatuated by sensual pleasures

A short, poetic description of Nibbāna.

It would be good, lord, if the Blessed One would teach me the Dhamma in brief

This discourse to Mahāpajāpati Gotamī is one of the few teachings in the canon (along with the teachings on mindfulness) which the Buddha declared as “categorical”: always applicable and useful in any situation. This sutta gives, better than any other, the overall direction of the teachings, and is a helpful compass pointing towards the true way.

You can also listen to this essay on YouTube.

…recognize that this view is not scientific discovery: it is ideology.

Many Westerners come to Buddhism wed to scientific materialism and find themselves unable to overcome their “Science Delusion.” White tackles this subject head-on in this striking interview.

The teaching of the four noble truths reflects a medical scheme of diagnosis, which proceeds from recognition of the disease, dukkha, to identifying its cause, craving.

Here, Bhikkhu Analayo gives us a straightforward exposition of the Four Noble Truths. A perfect, short introduction based on the Early Texts.