What does “Sangha” mean? The word “Sangha” is used in two ways. Firstly, it is the name given to the monastic order, hence the phrase, “The Thai Sangha”. Secondly, it refers to the community of all those who have realized one of the four stages of enlightenment. Two categories overlap to a high degree: over the past 2,600 years the vast majority of those who have realized stages of enlightenment have been members of the monastic order. Nevertheless, monastic life is not necessary condition for enlightenment. There have many members of the enlightened Sangha who have lived (and live) as […]

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 […]

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 […]