“I pray that we are not a religion.” Is Buddhism a religion? Is it, instead, a philosophy? First, let’s see what the Buddha himself has to say. It turns out, he has an answer for that question. He says emphatically, “What I teach is...
Karma is power. You have power because your actions have consequences. You have the power to change the world, and you have the power to change your life. You use this power at all times. Even if you decide not to use it, that very decision is an exercise of your...
(Context: Emptiness) Out of Nāgārjuna’s MMK comes another teaching that had a profound and long-lasting influence on Buddhism, that is the idea of the two levels of truths. The way Nāgārjuna puts it: The Buddha’s teaching of the Dharma is based on two...
“The farmer’s carrot-and-stick approach will cease to work once you perceive the emptiness of both carrot and stick.” There is a very important teaching closely related to dependent origination and non-self that gained a position of preeminence in many schools of...
(Context: Dependent Origination.) The most important thing about the teaching on dependent origination is it provides the answer to how to end suffering. If your understanding of dependent origination does not lead to ending suffering, then you are missing the...
