Dependent Arising
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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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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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Buddhism’s ‘Two Truths’ doctrine sounds like a summation of its highest-level insights – a realisation reserved for the end of a life spent in practice, perhaps. Yet, the doctrine is introduced very early on, almost as a foundational teaching, not a final or ultimate one. There is a profound irony here: the doctrine teaches us…