How Two Grandsons Married Their ‘Grandmothers’ 二孙如何娶’祖母’

Oct. 31 | 古古怪，怪怪古，孙子娶祖母。 猪羊炕上坐，六亲锅里煮。 女吃母之肉，子打父皮鼓。 众人来贺喜，我看真是苦！ – 志公禅师 How oddly strange, how strangely odd, that a grandson is marrying his father’s...

Eat Clean With Your Whole Heart

Oct. 30 | Consume mindfully with compassion and wisdom or consume mindlessly with greed and delusion. – Shilashanti Do not neglect your meals: Make your meals about the eating When you eat, are you focused on the act of eating? Breakfast is something you race...

What Creates The Most Positive Karma?

Oct. 29 | Answer: Killing creates the most negative karma. But if ways of breaking other precepts create equivalent harm, they are the same in negativity. Refraining from killing creates some positive karma but the true opposite of killing is liberating sentient...

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Lack Of Logic On Balance 

Oct. 28 | A key philosophical problem with the Star Wars universe is that it is ‘romantically’ yet unrealistically portrayed in terms of balance. For example, Luke Skywalker explains the force as so to Rey, ‘The force is not a power you have....

Disappointment Haiku

Oct. 19 | If you see the unenlightened as ‘perfect’, prepare to be disappointed, as an unenlightened and imperfect one too.

Thought, Word & Deed

Oct. 19 | If pure, think it appropriately.If true, say it appropriately.If right, do it appropriately.  If impure do not think it.If untrue, do not say it.If not right, do not do it.        – Nowanden

Can Truths Be Invalidated By Disbelief?

Oct. 19 | Even the theoretical ‘truth’ that there are no truths is a ‘truth’ if it is true, that invalidates itself. – Nowanden (Part 1) Will one who ‘renounced’ the Triple Gem to embrace another faith still be ‘haunted’...

Discard What You Don’t Need

Oct. 19 | What you do truly not need is so, even if you do not think so. What you do truly need is so, even if you do not think so. – Shilashanti When things aren’t going well, we tend to think  we are lacking in something. But if we want to change...

Are There Many Monastics In Hell?

Oct. 19 | Question: During a casual discussion with friends about Buddhism, a friend mentioned that many monastics end up suffering in hell. Is it so? Answer: There is this equivalent line that has been going around for a long time already, that says ‘地狱门前僧道多’...

How To Not Be ‘Haunted’?

Oct. 19 | Episode one of season two of ‘Haunted’ features among the most malevolent of ghosts, one who is both cunning and wicked. With the ability to read minds, the ‘Mimic’ is able to imitate the voices and forms of those familiar....

Help Haiku

Oct. 5 | Those sincere to help will correct the wrong; not just condemn them. The first to complain to is the one doing wrong, not to anyone else.

How To Delight The Buddhas 如何令佛欢喜

Oct. 4 | 若于众生尊重承事， 则为尊重承事如来。 若令众生生欢喜者， 则令一切如来欢喜。 何以故？诸佛如来， 以大悲心而为体故。 因于众生而起大悲， 因于大悲生菩提心， 因菩提心成等正觉。 –...

Why Take Threefold Refuge & Receive Five Precepts? 为何受三皈持五戒？

Oct. 3 | First, be inspired by the Triple Gem to take refuge in the Triple Gem. – Shilashanti As the Pure Land Tradition’s 13th Patriarch Great Master Yìnguāng (净土宗十三祖印光大师) taught in his ‘Third Reply Letter To Layperson Gāo Shàolín’...

Mindfulness Without Being Mindful Of Core Ethics & Its Ultimate Goal

Oct. 2 | Mindfulness is good – but what guides your mindfulness, if not sound ethics, and where does it lead to, if not true enlightenment? – Shilashanti The conspicuous absence of a path for ethical development in the secularized mindfulness movement creates...

How To View Miscarriages?

Oct. 1 | Question: How should an accidental miscarriage be seen? If family members have been praying to deities, how could it still occur? Answer: In the Buddhist perspective, a miscarriage happens due to collective karma of [1] the Mother, [2] the Father, [3]...