Tag Archives: Core Teaching of the Buddha
Growing Up Human
Visit the Hongaku Jodo Website Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. The experience of stress, pain, suffering is not a simple thing. The Buddha once observed, we respond to its complexity in two ways: And what is the … Continue reading
Does the Pure Land Have a Starbuck’s?
Nagarjuna urges us not to mistake the finger for the moon. He tells us not to confound words and meaning, that is, not to mistake the secular words that are used to point to ultimate truth for that truth itself. … Continue reading
Age Is No Guarantee of Wisdom — Unskillful & Skillful Desires
We observe reality from a point denied by our species (and cultural, and individual) makeup, our observations can only be made through representations, and representations always both add to and subtract from what they represent. —Derek Bickerton The idea of … Continue reading
The Faith Devotee, the Pure Land, and the Visuddhimagga
Part 3 of the Visuddhimagga is called “Understanding (Paññá).” Nestled amongst the very boring and hard to understand sentences is §74 — §82. It comes across as a sort of Abhidhammic verification of the Pure Land School of Buddhism. It … Continue reading
How to Create a Better Delusion
If the ways of the mind were simple, its problems would be simple too and therefore easy to fathom. In showing how to end its problems, the Buddha might have opted for simple and short instructions. He probably would have … Continue reading
What’s Wrong With Buddhism?
Traditional versus Secular Buddhism? Do we need secular Buddhism and what does that mean? We have to make a decision on what “Buddhism” means. It’s a shame that the word Buddhism was not copyrighted because now everyone can put the … Continue reading
The Power of Words
Click here to receive or newsletter or Check out our Website Dr. Masaru Emoto has experimented on water for more than a decade. He seems to have proven that water can sense, perhaps even comprehend, “see,” and “listen.” It seems, at least … Continue reading
Intention: Skilled & Unskilled
“Intention, I tell you, is kamma. Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & intellect.” Anguttara Nikaya 6.63 “‘I am the owner of my actions (kamma), heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, … Continue reading
Sentient Being or Being Sentience?
Nothing exists outside of the way we think of it; yet at the same time, nothing exists the way we think of it. The way we experience “things,” through the six consciousnesses and five aggregates, means that we are sentient … Continue reading
Authentic Buddhism; a Few Scattered Afterthought
Students often ask me about authentic Buddhism. Some Zen teachers claim that their version is the most authentic. Tibetans use the term “authentic” quite liberally when discussing their brand. Pure Land teachers sometimes make the claim as well. Of course, … Continue reading
Fists Full of Sand 