People without a spiritual life are comparable to walking dead; they are like busy empty shells. They have a body and mind, for which they work in many ways; but it is as if they have no soul, since they devote almost no energy to it. It is…
Meditation is all about getting to “know yourself” – your body, mind and soul. Almost as soon as you start meditating, you realize that you want to know yourself as you basically are – and not yourself as modified by various subst…
We live in an age of utter narcissism. Many multi-billion dollar enterprises, such as the clothing and cosmetic industries[1], depend on making egotists out of us and keeping us that way. Of course, one should look decent and smell nice; but there are reason…
As previously implied, suffering is a negative personal response to sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch sensations, or feelings or emotions of any sort, that have been, are now or are anticipated to be experienced (for whatever reason) as painful or a…
The three laws of thought are commonly considered by many current commentators[1] to be (at best) only relevant to rational discourse, and not relevant at all or even antithetical to meditation and all the more so to its finale of…
Just as our physical health is defined with reference to the human body, and its various members, organs and systems, as the optimum condition and function of that body – so in the case of mental health. Mental health is the optimum condition and f…
The phenomenal self. When Buddhists speak of one’s ‘consciousness’ or ‘mind’ they are often referring to what could be described as one’s sphere of experience at any moment. Moment after moment, all around the central point where cognition actu…
Justice occurs when you do some good or bad – through intention or some other mental act, through speech or some other physical act – and you get back what you deserve in relation and in proportion to that deed. Injustice means that some go…
Anonymous. The Dhammapada. London: Penguin, 1973.
Bodhidharma. The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma. Red Pine, trans. New York: North Point, 1989.
Cheng, Hsueh-li. Empty Logic: Madhyamika Buddhism from Chinese Sources. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.
Curtis, Helena and N. Sue Bar…