01 Wednesday Nov 2017
Posted in Buddhism
≈ Comments Off on Unethical Behavior
Tags
Even Buddhism is not beyond the realms of scandal. The Dalai Lama tells it how it is.
https://www.lionsroar.com/dalai-lama-denounce-ethical-misconduct-by-buddhist-teachers/
13 Wednesday Sep 2017
Posted in Buddhism
≈ Comments Off on Why Theravada Buddhism is my Path.
Tags
The Wheel of Dhamma
I came to Theravada Buddhism very slowly. Over the last 25 years or so I have investigated Wicca, the occult Western Tradition (The Golden Dawn etc.), I have investigated Aleister Crowley‘s Thelema, I have investigated Christianity quite heavily in many of its guises (both Protestant and Catholic), and I had a brief, yet wholly unproductive flirtation with Islam. I must admit the Koran, in English, is painfully unreadable but maybe that is just me.
Reiki
For some reason I never considered Buddhism as an avenue to look into until I came across the Japanese complementary therapy known as Reiki. Back in 2010 I was made redundant whilst diagnosed with severe depression and stress anxiety. Being made redundant did those conditions no favours and the medication I am on did not seem to be working too well so I started looking at the alternative market for something to try. My investigations lead me to Reiki. It is a Japanese form of hands on energy therapy that can be used to aid in the healing of almost anything. What surprised me was the founder, Mikao Usui, had Buddhist training and had used Buddhist techniques in developing his methods of assisting in the healing of various ills, including mental problems. Continue reading
30 Wednesday Aug 2017
Tags
The source of these excellent lectures is Bodhi Monastery, New Jersey, U.S.A. The Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi currently resides there and has done so for many years. Bhikkhu Bodhi is an eminent scholar in both Theravada Buddhism and the Pali Cannon. He has authored many articles, essays and books, as well as being responsible for the translation of a huge section of the Sutta Pitaka into the English language.
‘The Buddha’s Teaching As It Is’ provides a superb introduction to Theravada Buddhism. Anyone interested in investigating Buddhism from any path, Theravada or Mahayana, will benefit greatly from listening to them. I certainly did, and I had looked into Tibetan Buddhism for a couple of years before I came across them. Continue reading
24 Monday Jul 2017
Posted in Buddhism
≈ Comments Off on The Tipitaka: The Recorded Teachings of the Buddha.
Burmese-Pali Manuscript.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
The Tipitaka, or Three Baskets, are the corpus of recorded teachings of the Buddha written in the ancient language of Pali. Reputed to contain approximately 84,000 discourses, it could be said it would take a little while to get familiar with them.
The term ‘Pali’ actually means ‘text’, yet it was a simple translational mistake made years ago that meant that the language used to write the Suttas was actually named Pali in itself.
Tipitaka, in Pali, literally means ‘Three Baskets’ and refers to the three divisions of the Pali Canon:
22 Saturday Jul 2017
A Rock cut Seated Buddha Statue at Bojjannakonda, Visakhapatnam District
Theravada… from Pali means “School of the Elder Monks”. I believe it to be the closest existing school to what the Buddha actually taught. Mahayana Buddhism is the other major school of thought and literally means, from Sanskrit, “Major School”. Mahayana tends to concentrate on the path of the Bodhisattva, someone who dedicates their lives to attaining Arahantship then returning in the next life to train and teach others in the Buddhist way, thus delaying their entrance to Nibbana for the sake of other beings.
Theravada Buddhism uses the teachings preserved in the Pali Canon as it’s doctrine and concentrates more on the words of the Buddha. Mahayana has many commentaries on the canon that they follow, which is no bad thing but I find they tend to loose site of the Suttas. But that is just my position. Should you find yourself drawn to the Mahayana form of Buddhism, then please follow it. Truth is in their teachings and any form of truth is better than no truth at all.
Theravada has it’s origins primarily in Sri Lanka, where the Pali Canon was originally committed to writing during the first century BCE. If you wish to read these writings then a major part of them are available on Amazon from Wisdom Publications. I believe the best introduction to the Pali Cannon is an anthology compiled by the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi called “In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Cannon.” This work gives a valuable and systematic introduction to the teachings of the Buddha that any beginner will benefit from. I, myself, have a copy and have used this very work to start my journey toward enlightenment.