Easier & Better

Feb. 27 | If you see one as severely wicked, it is easy to give rise to anger. If you see the same person as severely deluded, it is easier to give rise to compassion. - Stonepeace

Fire & Water

Jan. 29 | Do not disregard small misdeeds, Thinking they are harmless, Because even tiny sparks of flame, Can set fire to a mountain of hay. Do not disregard small positive acts, Thinking they are without benefit, Because even tiny drops of water, Will eventually...

Evil, Self & Views

Jan. 22 | First, the unwholesome must be averted. In the middle, the self must averted. Last, all the views are averted. Wise is the one who knows this. - Aryadeva (Four Hundred Verses On The Middle Way) Related Course: The Heart Of The Heart Sutra

Can ‘Buddhists’ Not Believe In Rebirth?

Dec. 4 | If you do not believe in unenlightened rebirth, what are you seeking liberation from? [to be continued...] - Stonepeace There are some who do not believe in the Buddha’s teachings on rebirth, who nevertheless consider themselves to be Buddhists....

How Can Some With Good Karma Become Evil?

Nov. 21 | If merits and wisdom are always steadily cumulative from life to life, we should be liberated already. - Stonepeace One might be reborn into very favourable physical and material circumstances as a result of past good karma ripening now. However, being...

Should You Harm Others To Clear Their Bad Karma?

Nov. 15 | Just as no one is destined to harm you, you are not destined to harm anyone. - Stonepeace A mobster, who was supposedly also a ‘devout Buddhist’, when asked how he could do nasty things to people, replied that he simply expressed their bad...

True Dharma Practice

Aug. 16 | Unless you practice the Dharma according to the Dharma, ‘the Dharma’ itself becomes the cause of evil rebirths. - Gampopa

Can Creating Good Karma ‘Become’ Bad Karma?

Jul. 4 | Empowering one another with compassion, may all be motivated in doing good. Empowering one another with wisdom, may all be skilful in doing good. - Stonepeace Recently, a friend encountered a deceased bird on a pavement. Out of compassion, he stood near...

How Do We Recognise The Wise?

May. 17 | We take refuge in the Triple Gem, when we discern nothing more precious, that embodies complete goodness and truth. - Stonepeace Called the criterion for rejection and acceptance in the Kalama Sutta, the Buddha famously taught how to discern the truth...

Intentions & Experiences

May. 17 | Be swifter in knowing if your intentions are good or bad. Be slower in deciding if your experiences are good or bad. - Stonepeace

Conscience

May. 9 | How connected you are to good, evil and purity pivots upon how connected you are to your Buddha-nature. - Stonepeace

Is It Really ‘Very Bad (Or Good) Karma’?

Feb. 13 | Whether something that happens to you is truly good or bad for you depends on how you perceive the experience. - Stonepeace We often hear the utterance of the dreaded exclaimation, ‘Very bad karma!’ Sometimes, this is remarked in response...

Cool Heroism

Jan. 30 | Rage should be transformed into energy for dissolving itself, transmuting it into skilful action. - Stonepeace To deal with feelings of anger and fear and frustration, we can start by finding relationality. As the Lakota Indians say, Mitakuye oyasin:...

Verse For Repentance (忏悔文)

Nov. 29 | All the evil karma I have created in the past, from beginningless greed, hatred and delusion, that arose from my body, speech and mind, for all these I now seek repentance and reformation. - Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (Avatamsaka Sutra) 我昔所造诸恶业 皆由无始贪嗔痴 从身语意之所生 一切我今皆忏悔 -...

Are All Outer Evils Projected By Us?

Oct. 24 | The misfortune we experience from others are rebounding effects of our evil, be they from this present life or past lives. - Stonepeace It is often said that when we perceive others to be evil (i.e. to have misgivings), we are the evil ones, as the evils...