You cannot change the past, arrange the future to suit yourself, or make other people say and do the things you want them to say and do. All of your power is contained within this moment, related t…

Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort. Those who don’t understand the mind practise in vain. Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find somethin…

Dhamma talk centred around the conditioning we receive throughout our lives.

Amazon

The path to awakening is impossible to map.

When minding about the future ceases of itself, it can be said that there is no future.

Buddhism has a very guru-and-teacher-oriented side to it, but I don’t think it was ever meant to. The Buddha found his own way to freedom from suffering…

We fall sometimes, in old habits; we slide back; we regress and start yelling or nourishing self-aversion, but if we keep practising, we wake up again and find that we don’t really want to co…

Greed and hatred are the same in an Eastern or a Western mind. Suffering and the cessation of suffering are the same for all people.

Reading this poem reminds me of Bodhidharma’s declaration to Eka: ‘On your behalf I have already bestowed on you peaceful awareness’ Without this special element in religion, shinjin or satori woul…

Buddhism has a very guru-and-teacher-oriented side to it, but I don’t think it was ever meant to. The Buddha found his own way to freedom from suffering…

After practising meditation for a while, we must enter the state of no-self. When the self is let go of, self and body disappear, and there is great brightness. If we sit and enter the state of no-…

The parallels with the story of the young Prince Siddhartha 2500 years earlier are clear. As childhood with its certainties (if we are lucky) and its securities, moves into adolescence and then mat…

Member of the audience takes a selfie with the Dalai Lama

In ancient times, the Patriarchs and Ancestors directly pointed at the mind for realisation of self-nature and attainment of Buddhahood. Like Bodhidharma who ‘quietened the mind’ and th…

Bhikkhu Zhi Chang, a native of Gui Xi of Xin Zhou, joined the Order in his childhood, and was very zealous in his efforts to realize the Essence of Mind. One day, he came to pay homage to the Patri…

The process whereby Buddhism—which first began as the deeply internal experience of just one ascetic practitioner—has over time borne fruit within vastly different races, climates, cultures and his…

Fun and laughter are also central to the story of Maitreya, the future Buddha, as taught in Mahayana literature.

Posts about Biography written by Buddhism Now

Sometimes metta is presented as a kind of ‘think pink’ idea, where we are just saying very nice things and wishing everybody well and it is all very sweet and nice, but underneath there might be a …

Just as the radiance of all the stars does not equal a sixteenth part of the moon’s radiance, but the moon’s radiance surpasses them and shines forth, bright and brilliant, even so, whatever ground…

Shakyamuni Descending from the Mountain.15th century, Japan.© Metropolitan Museum of Art Shakyamuni renounced the world and went into the mountains to become an ascetic when he was twenty-nine year…

So just because we have human bodies doesn’t mean we are human beings!

Everybody — Wake up!

While many Buddhists take Dhamma to be “the Buddha’s teaching,” it really means “Natural Truth” or “Natural Law.” Of course, this is what the Buddha taught…

Life in the West is full or problems and traumas, and we move from one to the next like a blind person finding the way along a rope bridge. We can, it is true, refuse to see the ‘bad’ things, or si…

The strength of false thought is great, so you ought to be afraid of it. And it is necessary that you get away from it. You want to get away from your false thought, but how much strength do you ha…

Love has to be brave enough to drink up the person entirely ― poison and all.

The path to awakening is impossible to map.

You sometimes hear widely accepted teachings in Buddhism being argued about and all but dismissed, but Buddhism is for testing. Isn’t that the whole point? But you do hear these tussles going on…

You sometimes hear widely accepted teachings in Buddhism being argued about and all but dismissed, but Buddhism is for testing. Isn’t that the whole point? But you do hear these tussles going on…

Shakyamuni Descending from the Mountain.15th century, Japan.© Metropolitan Museum of Art Shakyamuni renounced the world and went into the mountains to become an ascetic when he was twenty-nine year…

Bob Thurman on the wisdom and message of Buddha.

Just as the radiance of all the stars does not equal a sixteenth part of the moon’s radiance, but the moon’s radiance surpasses them and shines forth, bright and brilliant, even so, whatever ground…

Buddhist talk: Being Awake to Rebirth in the Moment.

Buddhist talk: Being Awake to Rebirth in the Moment.

This painted cover for a palm-leaf manuscript belongs to the Pala- Nepalese tradition. It comes from a palm-leaf edition of the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra (“Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 V…

Frequently asked questions on Buddhism Who was the Buddha? What does the word ‘Buddha’ Mean? What did the Buddha teach? Is there a God in Buddhism as in Christianity? What do Buddhists …