Zen
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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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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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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…
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I look at the different schools of Buddhism and differentiate them partly by lines of accountability for stewardship of the dharma. The traditional schools rely heavily on the authority of institutional weight, the monastic code (vinaya) and lineage. The practitioner is accountable to thousands of years of precedent, and an honest enquirer can easily feel…
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I am a practitioner of my time. My natural home might be secular humanism, but I feel that it fails to honour any spiritual dimension to life and thus lacks true depth. Within the range of the various Buddhist schools or movements, there are multiple options available à la carte for an independent practitioner to…
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A couple of weeks have passed, and you’ve meditated nearly every day, extending your initial ten minutes now to fifteen. Several times, your breath counting has reached ten and back to one without it feeling as though you have been hijacked by your own thoughts. To your initial surprise, you have discovered that if you…
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The early days (and possibly weeks and months) of a new meditation practice have a certain comedic property. There we are, trying to conjure up deep thoughts. We’re not sure what they should be about, but they’re undoubtedly deep. And we’re trying to follow the guidance and meditate ‘on the breath,’ counting the in-breaths and…
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So, interest aroused, you have put the cart before the horse and ordered both an inexpensive paperback meditation primer (such as Steve Hagen’s Meditation Now or Never) and a zafu (a circular cushion on which you propose to sit), which you think rather expensive for what it is. The delivery driver throws them down at…