Buddhism
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In early Buddhism, the Three Poisons (or Three Unwholesome Roots) – Greed (lobha), Hatred (dosa) and Delusion (moha) – are the fundamental defilements (kilesas) that drive the cycle of human suffering. In early Buddhist psychology, they are viewed as innate, deep‑seated cognitive patterns that constrict, destabilise, and confuse human experience. Delusion operates as the primary…
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In the Eightfold Path, Wisdom (paññā) is not a single strand but two: Right View (sammā diṭṭhi) and Right Intention (sammā saṅkappa). Wisdom begins with clarity, and culminates in the willingness to let that clarity reshape one’s motivations. Wisdom is not an accumulation of knowledge, but simply seeing things as they are, without distortion, without…
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Last time, I suggested that modernity clouds the mind in ways far more pervasive than any single act of consumption. This is why the fifth precept matters so much. In modern Western contexts, it is usually read as a caution about alcohol: a reminder not to drink to excess. But if we take seriously the…
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The Five Precepts of early Buddhism are often presented as a set of ancient prohibitions: don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t misuse sexuality, don’t lie, don’t cloud the mind. They were shaped in a world where harm was immediate and visible, and where ethical restraint was the foundation of practice. But if these precepts are to…
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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 nature of experience, concluding that nothing…
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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 But I am not interested in defending their metaphysical status or rehearsing old doctrinal explanations. What matters to me is how they lead to the Eightfold Path, where the real work of ethics, meditation, and…
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If karma is the observation that intention shapes action, and action shapes experience, then a further question naturally follows: how do we live in a way that supports clarity rather than confusion, ease rather than friction? The Buddha places this question at the very beginning of the Eightfold Path. Not as a moral demand, not…
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In early Buddhism, karma was defined as volitional intention (cetanā), where the moral weight of an action lay in the psychological impulse behind it. Intentional acts of body, speech, and mind functioned as seeds that ‘ripened’ into specific results within the cycle of suffering and rebirth (saṃsāra). Rather than being a system of divine judgment,…
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Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh paraphrased the Five Remembrances (found in the Upajjhatthana Sutta) like this: On a first reading, the Five Remembrances can seem very bleak statements that describe unavoidable human suffering. They certainly challenge our tendency to live in denial of ageing and death. We don’t feel very comfortable facing our own…