by Chade-Meng Tan | Dec 26, 2021
Father Tutu has passed. He is one of my most favorite human beings in the world. He inspires in a thousand ways. He, along with the Dalai Lama, showed me how deep spirituality, the desire to change the world, and a joyful sense of humor, can all work together to...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Aug 11, 2019
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...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Jan 22, 2019
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...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Oct 21, 2018
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...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Oct 19, 2018
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...
