Nothing much
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The ethical code of early Buddhism is to be found mainly in the strands of the Eightfold Path concerned with Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood (sīla), together with the Five Precepts for laypeople. They present an ancient blueprint for avoiding harm (ahimsa). But beneath this clarity lies a framework that is both ingenious…
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Emptiness (sūnyatā) explains the nature of everything. The explanation was already implicit in the earliest teaching of no-self (anattā) – that humans have no permanent, unchanging ‘self’ (or soul), but instead consist of five aggregates: the body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Another early teaching looks to the origin of all things, concluding that…
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We are usually taught that the Four Noble Truths are Buddhism’s starting point – a compact diagnosis of the human condition outlining dissatisfaction/suffering (dukkha), its causes (samudaya), its cessation (nirodha), and the path forward (magga). But I am not interested in defending their metaphysical status or rehearsing old doctrinal explanations. What matters to me is how they…
