The suttas of the Pali Canon are repetitive. If you approach them as something with a grand story arc with detailed breakdowns of the crucial mechanics of Awakening, you'll be disappointed. On the other hand, reading the suttas slowly and working through the repetition is of great benefit.
Have you ever gotten mixed up about the beverage in your cup, picked it up and tasted water for a split second only to realize it was something else? The taste of water was as real in that instant, as palpable as the actual flavor and texture that drowned it
By July of 2020, I was paying very little attention to Covid and wasn't really following current events much. We were still required to wear face masks in some stores but I ignored them, the one exception being a local Guitar Center that absolutely required masking in order
I know most people have Covid fatigue and want to see it as past us. We should all move on with our lives, forget about it. Covid, the Jab and everything related to this period is the most important thing that has happened in the last few centuries. Both will
I am a hermit. A very lucky hermit. I've (mostly) always wanted to be a hermit. The Universe favored me with an opportunity to have a secluded home on an area of modest acreage, covered in trees. I have a very long drive way, can't see
I cannot think of a better argument on behalf of Buddhism than Satan. Sorry, I couldn't help myself there. It's a provocative line and the basis for exploring whether Buddhism's cosmology accounts for the rise and fall of the Abrahamic faiths' arch-villain. Five
The executive committee has, after some deliberation, agreed that "A Tangle of Views" is a better name for this blog than "Nibbana Notes." The latter was generated by ChatGPT in a moment of curiosity and was a stand-in until a more suitable title was found. ATV
Let's go straight to the question of Rebirth. Christians and Buddhists believe in rebirth – they just disagree about the number of times it happens. The former say it occurs once again after natural birth (twice if you count baptism) and the latter says the phenomenon repeats... a lot.
For some Westerners, Christianity still provides an identity and life purpose. Civilizations in decline do not relinquish their heritage except bit by bit. All civilizations are religious even if this fundament weakens with the passage of time. The secularism of the modern West took centuries to reach domination and even
I had just left an IT consulting position with a Big Dumb Company after six weeks and was between gigs. It had looked good on paper, but like most things consulting-related, it did not match the advertisement. The client was a very large corporation and the software I was working