by Chade-Meng Tan | Nov 5, 2023 | Buddhism for All
It was the final climactic scene of the movie. A huge bomb was about to blow up an entire building. The clock was in its final countdown. All attempts by the hero to disarm the bomb had failed. They were mere seconds away from the explosion. What to do? Being the...
by Soryu Forall | Nov 4, 2023 | Buddhism for All
I tell people that the world isn’t trustworthy, that if you depend on anything external, you will find that it is unreliable and unfulfilling, and if you grasp to it, you will get hurt. I tell people that their inner world isn’t trustworthy either, that whether you...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Nov 3, 2023 | Buddhism for All
Imagine living in a weird world where cars come with a self-destruct button that you can order as an add-on. It’s a big red button right beside the cupholders that says, “Self-destruct, DO NOT PRESS”. If you press the button, the car blows up, with you in...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Nov 2, 2023 | Buddhism for All
It is common among Buddhists to erroneously claim that the First Noble Truth proclaims, “Life is suffering.” That mistake is understandable, I catch myself doing it frequently too. There are two problems with that claim. First, according to the...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Nov 1, 2023 | Buddhism for All
“Which one of us is going to tell him?” The Buddha taught that the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering. What does that mean? One way to think of it is like trying to grab hold of water with your hands to drink it. No matter...
by Chade-Meng Tan | Oct 31, 2023 | Buddhism for All
“Arrr – draw a line on the water, savvy?” Regarding the five aggregates, allow me to confess a dirty little secret: with the possible exception of form, there is no consensus among Buddhist teachers on the precise definition of each aggregate. ...
