Still, if you want to understand how mindfulness came to the Western world, we can go back more than 2,600 years to when the Buddha became enlightened himself and first taught the wisdom of being mindful. The Buddha And The Four Foundations of Mindfulness The Buddha — Siddhartha Gautama —...
–Stonepeace If we all have Buddha-nature, how did we fall, to become unenlightened?’ In several ways, this question is wrongly asked. First, there is attachment to self when we ask in terms of’ ‘we’, while we have no fixed ‘selves’. If we have fixed selves, we wouldn’t ch...
How did Siddhartha become Buddha? Buddha meditated for 49 days under the Bodhi tree to seek the truth about human existence. During this time, he achieved nirvana, which is the escape from the endless cycle of suffering, death and rebirth. As a result, Siddhartha Gautama became Buddha or the...
The householder will probably not have a teacher, whereas the monastic most certainly will. This requires the householder to often learn about the dharma on their own. Unlike some 2500 years ago when the Buddha taught the dharma, we now have multiple ways to accomplish this. In the Buddha’s...
Learning the Dharma Challenge for the Householder The householder will probably not have a teacher, whereas the monastic most certainly will. This requires the householder to often learn about the dharma on their own. Unlike some 2500 years ago when the Buddha taught the dharma, we now have mul...
The Buddha did not say that. As Buddhist disciples, we do not want to spread it irresponsibly. On the contrary, in lunar July, reciting "The Ksitigarbha Sutra" and practicing the Ksitigarbha method are the most auspicious. This is the best time to release one's own foes and karmic credito...
Tell them that the Buddha, or the "Enlightened One," did not become a god or prophet when he reached enlightenment. Rather, he spent the rest of his life teaching the path to enlightenment -- also called the Dharma or "truth." Buddhists regard the Buddha as an important teacher. ...
Amitabha Buddha surrounded by Enlightened Beings in Sukhavati, the Western Pure Land. Not inside, not outside Patriarch Ou-I wrote: “The true essence of all the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) scriptures is Absolute Reality itself. What is Absolute Reality? It is the Pure Mind of sentient...
Finding the Dalai Lama As a supremely enlightened being, when a Dalai Lama shuffles off his mortal coil, he doesn’t just expire, he practices conscious dying. Calledphowa, the process involves the transference of the consciousness, just at the time of death, into one of the Buddha forms,...
‘ and not stages becausethe spiritual wanderer’s journey isnota linear processthat has a start and end; it is cyclical. It’s like the moon. It’s a spiraling dance of energy that is ever-deepening and changing – there is no “end,” even after you’ve had an enlightened shift ...