The Teachings of the Buddha

Poem: Please Call Me By My True Names

by Thich Nhat Hanh, #37 Autumn 2004

Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion. Read More

Wisdom from the Venerable Mae Chee Kaew

Her Journey to Spiritual Awakening and Enlightenment

This article presents the wisdom from a life and practice of a woman who reached the pinnacle of Buddhist practice in her lifetime. She was known as Mae Chee Kaew. Read More

Wisdom of Ajahn Chah on Training the Mind

"It's just like raising water buffaloes. You've got the farmer, some rice plants, and the water buffalo. Now the water buffalo wants to eat those rice plants. Rice plants are what water buffaloes like to eat, right? Your mind is a water buffalo. Defiled emotions are like the rice plants. The knowing is the farmer. Dhamma practice is just like this. Read More

Love Me, Love my Defilements - Dhamma Talks #1

"The concept that a lot of modern people find very hard to accept is that their minds have defilements. They think that their minds are perfectly fine, that there is nothing dirty or defiling in their minds. Although there are types of Buddhism that teach that we all have a Buddha Nature, the Buddha Himself never taught that!" Read More

Skillful Fear and Catching Yourself Lying to Yourself

- Dhamma Talks 2

It is good to reflect on the fact that some things are worthy of fear.

Not all fear is unskillful. There is also a wise fear.

A fear of being wary of what your mind is capable of doing. Read More

"Anti-Slacker Dhamma" - Dhamma Talks #3

You can understand this teaching as a corruption of Dharma when people try to sell it! People like to sell things that are popular, and there are plenty of slackers out there that would like to hear that the Buddha was on their side. Read More

Which Way within Meditation

Likewise, in the beginning of spiritual movement the first task before us is to develop the skill of concentration within meditation. In fact, in the Pali Canons containing the words of the Buddha (whom the spiritual world reveres as the Master of meditation), the word in Pali used for meditation (jhana) means exactly “development”. Read More

A Meditator’s Guide for Reducing Stress

Choose any Name of God you wish; such as Om, Buddha, etc.. Sit upright as comfortably as you can, gently close your eyes. Make the mind cool and still. Do not allow your meditation to become your opponent. Approach meditation as a real friend, allowing adequate time to become best friends. Read More

Revelation of Lao Tsu - The Tao

“Some say that my teaching is nonsense,

Others call it lofty but impractical.

But to those who have looked inside themselves,

this nonsense makes perfect sense.” Read More

Discipline the High Road to Heaven

“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.

Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.” The Buddha Read More

From the Dhammapada - Loka Vagga, The World

“Just as one would look upon a bubble, just as one would look upon a mirage — if a person thus looks upon the world, the king of death sees him not.” Read More

From the Dhammapada on Anger and Fault

Abandon anger, be done with conceit, get beyond every fetter.

When for name and form you have no attachment — have nothing at all — no sufferings, no stresses, invade. Read More

The Buddha - Dhammapada Teachings - The True Master

He has come to the end of the way, Over the river of his many lives,

His many deaths. Beyond the sorrow of hell,

Beyond the great joy of heaven, By virtue of his purity.

He has come to the end of the way. All that he had to do, he has done.

And now he is one. Read More

Meditate Constantly

“Cut down the entire forest, not just a single tree. From the forest springs fear. Cutting down both forest and brushwood, be passionless, O stream seekers. For as long as the slightest passion of man towards desire is not cut down, so long is his mind in bondage, like the calf to its mother.” Read More

Patala Sutta: The Bottomless Chasm

Whoever can't endure them once they've arisen — painful bodily feelings that could kill living beings who trembles at their touch, who cries and wails, a weakling with no resilience:he hasn't risen up out of the bottomless chasm or even gained a foothold. Read More

Citta Vagga - The Mind

“Mind is the forerunner of (all evil) states. Mind is chief; and they are mind-made. If one speaks or acts with a corrupt mind, Suffering follows as the wheel follows the hoof of the ox.” Read More