War and peace are the epic saga of humanity. They are all that our history books contain because they are what our hearts contain. If you have ever read //Don Quixote//, you'll remember that he was fighting windmills. Everybody is doing just that, fighting windmills. Don Quixote was …
I once saw a cartoon strip about a little character called Hagar the Horrible. It really summed up for me what so many people seem to feel about the theme of renunciation. Hagar is climbing a very steep mountain, and in the first frame you see him going up, laboring away. In the second …
GOTAMA BUDDHA SAID, when he was an old man, "This body is like an old cart, held together by straps; this body only keeps going by makeshift repairs. The only way I can feel comfortable is to absorb my mind into signless concentration." For all of us, the Buddha included, we ar…
The four pathways to power are, according to the Buddha, essential aspects of realizing liberation. He said: "If a monk or nun has missed the four pathways to power, they have missed the way to liberation. If they have practiced the four pathways to power, they are practicing the rig…
Sit comfortably erect, without leaning forward or backward, left or right. Close your eyes and think thoughts of good will. Thoughts of good will go first to yourself, because if you can't think good will for yourself -- if you can't feel a sincere desire for your own happiness -…
For a monastic (a monk or a nun) food is to be regarded as medicine and not as a pleasure. In the spirit of the Middle Way it should be taken in just sufficient quantity to keep the body healthy. In the KITAGIRI SUTTA of the MAJJHIMA NIKAYA is found the following passage: Once when the B…
Stephen Batchelor's book, "Buddhism Without Beliefs" has attracted a lot of attention in Buddhist circles. In many respects, this is an important book. It may be seen as a lucid manifesto of a tendency in modern, western Buddhism that has been gaining ground in recent years…
