Yearly Archives: 2014

What does Buddhism teach about heaven and hell?

What does Buddhism teach about heaven and hell? {311} “Just as kusa grass if badly held cuts that very hand, so also, the ill-led life of a Bhikkhu drags that Bhikkhu down to niraya.” Heaven and hell are considered to be two realms of existence. Birth in one of these realms occurs as the result of volitional actions. Although the lifespan of one born into one of the realms is very long, it does ultimately come to an end. It is for this reason that the desire to be born in heaven after death is considered unwise. Heaven is a […]

What does Buddhism say about rebirth?

What does Buddhism say about rebirth? In the early hours of the night on which Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened, he found himself capable of recollecting an immense number of past lives. In the middle part of the night he found himself able to follow the wanderings of beings through different realms over many lifetimes, and thus to verify the law of kamma. These unimaginably intense experiences so undermined the deep-seated foundations of toxicity in his mind, and so enhanced the power of his contemplations, that by dawn he had become a fully enlightened Buddha. Throughout his teaching career the Buddha […]

What, in a nutshell, is the law of kamma?

What, in a nutshell, is the law of kamma? The Buddha said that the essence of kamma is intention. The law of kamma (or in Sanskrit: karma) expresses the moral dimension of the law of cause and effect. Any intentional action performed through body, speech, or mind produces results consistent with that intention. Put most simply: good actions have good results; bad actions have bad results. Actions provoked by toxic mental states rooted in greed, hatred and delusion contribute to future suffering. Actions flowing from wisdom and compassion contribute to future happiness. Is everything that happens in our life meant […]

Law of kamma

How long does it take to get enlightened?

How long does it take to get enlightened? This question may be answered with an old story: A monk is walking through the countryside. He asks an old lady sitting by the side of the road how long it will take him to get to the mountain. She ignores him. He asks her again and she ignores him again. And so for a third time. The monk assumes that the woman must be deaf. As he walks on he hears her shout out: “Seven days!” The monk return to the woman: “grandmother, I asked you this question three times and […]

Is Buddhism too focused on the individual and lacking in its social dimension?

Is Buddhism too focused on the individual and lacking in its social dimension? The term “Buddhism” is a modern usage. The Buddha himself referred to his teaching as Dhamma-Vinaya, with “Vinaya” referring to means by which the external environment can be ordered so as to create the optimum conditions for the study, practice and realization of Dhamma. Vinaya reaches its apogee in the rules and regulations governing the life of Buddhist monastics, but is also applicable to society at large. In the latter context, Vinaya takes form of laws, customs, and conventions that support the reduction of greed, hatred and […]

Budismo Social - Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso reunido con Obama, Foto oficial de la Casa Blanca por Pete Souza

How much confidence can be placed in the authenticity of the Buddhist texts?

How much confidence can be placed in the authenticity of the Buddhist texts? The oral transmission of Buddhist texts may well have been strength rather than a weakness. When texts are preserved by groups of monastics chanting them together at regular intervals, the likelihood of errors of omission or deliberate amendments is minimized. While it must be acknowledged that there can be no unshakeable evidence for the authenticity of the Buddhist texts, there are nonetheless a number of good reasons to place confidence in them. Firstly, as explained earlier there is an inner coherence and lack of contradiction in the […]

Do Buddhist believe in God?

Do Buddhist believe in God? As the definition of the word “god” varies throughout the various religious traditions of the world, there is no straightforward answer to this question. Whereas the notion of a personal creator god is clearly incompatible with Buddhist teachings, some of the more abstract concepts of “god” may be reconciled with them to a certain degree. More question and answers HERE Source: Without and Within – Ajahn Jayasaro   Ryokan Says In my experience talking about religion with others often can lead into a heated argument, this is because everybody has a different way to build and […]

Essence of Buddhism- Buddha and the Loto flower simbolism

What is the essence of Buddhism?

What is the essence of Buddhism? The Buddha answered this question with a powerful simile. He said that just as from whatever sea, whatever ocean, one were to take a sample of water, it would always have the same salty taste, so every one of the Buddha’s teachings reveals the single taste of liberation. Liberation, freedom from dukkha and its causes, is the essence of Buddhism. What is the ultimate goal of Dhamma practice? The results of Dhamma practice can be expressed both in the negative and the positive sense. In the negative sense, the result is freedom from suffering […]

Are there any buddhist scriptures?

Buddhist scriptures The Tipitaka (literally “three baskets”) is the collection of primary text of Theravada Buddhism preserved in the ancient Indian language of Pali. In English translation the Tipitaka cover some 20,000 printed pages. The Tipitaka is divided into three sections: The Vinaya Pitaka The collection of texts containing the code of discipline for monks and nuns, and the instructions for governance of monastic affairs. The latter includes, for example, sections on the monastic etiquette, ceremonies and the correct relationship to the “four requisites”: robe, alms-food, dwelling-place, and medicines, as well as procedures for ordination of new members and resolving […]

is buddhism a religion or a philosophy

Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy?

Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy? Buddhism can be puzzling for someone brought up within one of the great monotheistic traditions such as Christianity or Islam. Although Buddhist traditions give a place to devotion and ceremony, Buddhism has no dogmas, no single great book. It involves no worship of a god. What Buddhism does have is a mass of teachings that in other traditions would be considered to lie within the realm of philosophy or psychology. For this reason there has been much doubts as to whether Buddhism is a religion at all. Buddhism certainly does not fit into […]

What are defilements?

Defilements The untrained mind is prey to many mental states (defilements) that sully its natural radiance. These include the various forms of greed, jealousy, anger, hatred and animosity, dullness and agitation, complacency, confusion, arrogance, contempt and conceit, and blind attachment to views and beliefs. Fortunately, none of these mental states is ‘hard-wired’ into the mind; every one may be eliminated through practice of the Eightfold Path. These negative, harmful mental states are called “kilesa” in the Pali language, usually rendered in English as “defilements” In this [FAQ about Buddhism] the term “toxic mental states” has been preferred to “defilement”. The […]

How does one become a Buddhist?

Practically speaking, someone becomes a Buddhist when, having taken refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, they start to apply themselves to the study and application of the Buddha’s teachings in their lives. In Buddhist counties such as Thailand there have never been specific ceremonies in which people may formally affirm their devotion to Buddhism. This may be to some extent because Buddhism is not a religion based on the adoption of certain beliefs; and also partly because, there being no Buddhist proselytism, there have been few new converts. For better or worse, people have generally taken their Buddhist identity […]

What does it mean to “let go”?

The Buddha taught us to observe how we constantly create suffering for ourselves by grasping onto the body and its senses, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, emotions as being “me” or “mine”. Learning how to abandon that habit is learning how to “let go”. It is not possible through an act of will. Letting go occurs naturally when the trained mind is keen enough to perceive that there is nothing to be found in our direct experience which corresponds to the concept of “me” and “mine”. “Me” and “mine” are not, however, mere illusions; they are extremely useful social conventions, and the […]

Is it correct that Buddhism teaches us to give up all desires?

Buddhism distinguishes two kinds of desire: the first (tanha) to be abandoned and the second (chanda) to be cultivated. Tanha is the desire that arises from a basic misunderstanding of the way things are: perceiving permanence, happiness and selfhood where they do not exist. Desire for the pleasures to be had through getting, getting rid and becoming is tanha. Tanha leads to personal suffering and is the basis of almost all social ills. Chanda is the desire that arises from a correct understanding of the way things are. At its heart lies the aspiration for truth and goodness. Desire to […]

But isn’t Buddhism all about suffering?

The Buddha said that all of his teachings, traditionally numbered as 84,000, could be reduced to just two: dukkha and the end of dukkha. Suffering, in its sense of physical or mental distress, is only the coarsest expression of dukkha. The relationship between the English word “suffering” and the Pali concept of dukkha is comparable to that between bright red and color. Dukkha could also be translated as a chronic sense of lack, or a flaw or incompleteness of experience. In this sense, dukkha is experience seen as “not-Nibbana”. For this reason, the most subtle and sublime mental states are […]