Author: admin

Right concentration (sammā-samādhi) refers to the four jhānas. The word jhāna literally means meditation, but when the Buddha uses that word, he is referring to a specific collection of four increasingly refined states of meditative absorption.  That’s why you often see jhāna translated as “absorption” and occasionally, as “meditation”.  I decided to leave jhāna untranslated.  The four jhānas are simply named the first jhāna, the second jhāna, the third jhāna and the fourth jhāna. The four jhānas offer powerful stepping stones towards nirvana.  The Buddha speaks very frequently of the jhānas, but I find his Discourse on the Five...

I’m so unenlightened … my bad karma has its own bad karma. I’m so unenlightened … I accepted Mara’s friend request on Facebook. I’m so unenlightened … I left the form empty at the DMV because emptiness is form and form is emptiness. I’m so unenlightened … I understand nonduality only half the time. I’m so unenlightened … I ran into a wall abiding in the base of infinite space. I’m so unenlightened … I fell asleep abiding in the base of infinite consciousness. I’m so unenlightened … I have clutter in the base of nothingness. I’m so unenlightened … Mara...

It is common among Buddhists, even Buddhist teachers, to erroneously claim that the Buddha proclaimed, “Life is suffering.”  That mistake is understandable, I catch myself doing it frequently too. There are two problems with this claim.  First, according to the canonical texts, the Buddha never actually said that.  What he said instead was, “the five aggregates (form, sensation, perception, volitional formation and consciousness) subject to clinging are suffering.” [1] Second, it is not actually true that “life is suffering”, because life is not exclusively suffering.  There is indeed a lot of pleasure in life, and that is actually a...

On the final evening of the Buddha’s earthly existence, a few hours before his passing, the Buddha was lying down between two sāla trees, mindful and fully aware.  According to the story, the trees then scattered, sprinkled and strewed blossoms on the Buddha’s body out of veneration for him.  And then thing got even more spectacular, “heavenly mandārava flowers and heavenly sandalwood powder fell from the sky and were scattered and sprinkled and strewn over the Blessed One’s body out of veneration for him. And heavenly music was played and heavenly songs were sung in the sky out of veneration...

Rāhula was the biological son of the Buddha.  Or, more accurately, he was the biological son of Prince Siddhattha before Siddhattha became the Buddha.  When Rāhula was six, Siddhattha became the Buddha, and when Rāhula was seven, he became a Buddhist monk to join his father.  The great Sāriputta, the Buddha’s chief disciple, was assigned to be Rāhula’s teacher. One morning, when Rāhula was eighteen, the Buddha and his group of monks, including Rāhula, set out to the city for alms.  Rāhula walked closely behind the Buddha.  This day, naughty thoughts started arising in Rāhula’s mind.  The canonical text did not...