Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 10 April, 2008 | No Comments »
[Summary: a look at the entanglement of this generation. How can we carry on the traditions of the great monks and teachers who have passed away?]
A tangle inside, a tangle outside
This generation is entangled in a tangle.
This modern era with its superstores and super-gadgets, consumerism, commercialism and materialism, with endless distractions at the flick of [...]
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged self on 11 February, 2008 | 3 Comments »
[Summary: Blog on the teaching of non-self. 'Anatta' is often misunderstood, muchly due to the poor translation into 'non-self'.]
Non-self is an awkward concept in Buddhism. The English translation gets wrapped up with a Freudian outlook of ego, and hints at trying to be without ego. To be fair to Freud, what we consider to [...]
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 1 February, 2008 | 5 Comments »
[Summary: Blog on the precepts and drinking alcohol - how much do you have to give up?]
I work out on the road all week, and get home on a Friday evening. Why can’t I share a bottle of wine with my wife, and enjoy the weekend,
asked Ryan. He was a keen Buddhist, and spent some [...]
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma on 1 January, 2008 | No Comments »
[Summary: mining through religions for something of value - when Christmas has meaning. Splitting religion not into creeds, but blind-believers and the practising mystics]
…
One of my (ashamedly) favourite authors, archetypal New Zealander Barry Crump, spent several years of his life as a gold prospector in New Zealand, in the early 80’s I think. Hard to imagine, [...]
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged miracles on 21 November, 2007 | No Comments »
continued from Part I …
One time a layman named Kevaddha went to the Buddha and entreated him to perform some miracles in the wealthy town of Nalanda in order to get support for the Sangha. Three times he was refused with the answer,
This is not the way I teach Dhamma to the monks, by saying [...]
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged dukkha on 13 November, 2007 | No Comments »
Is it true that we are so attached to our suffering because of the pleasant feeling we get when it stops for a few moments? Dukkha is inherent in all our behaviour and sensory realm, in one form or another, which means there will never be an end to the inventive ways we find to [...]
Posted in All Posts, Dhamma, tagged miracles on 5 November, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Curiouser and Curiouser cried Alice, so surprised she quite forgot how to speak good English.
So goes Alice’s reaction to some miraculous happenings. Happenings that in Wonderland were harmlessly entertaining.
The Buddha, in the mythology, did perform a number of miracles. They were rather few, and many of the stories one hears actually come from [...]
