Tag: The Image of God
Abraham’s Simple Marga to Achieve Liberation
The classical path (marga or magga) to reach liberation (or vimutti) is the Noble Eightfold Path. The Sutta Pitaka gives the Noble Eight-fold Path like this: “The Blessed One said, ‘Now what, monks, is the Noble Eightfold Path? Right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration [samadhi]’”…
Races and Languages: From Where? Answering Racism
People often mentally categorize others by race. Physical features, like skin color, that distinguish one group of people, a ‘race’, from another, are easy to notice. So Caucasians are ‘white’, while those of Asian and African decent are darker. These traits distinguishing groups of people from each other easily leads to racism. This is the…
Apparel: Why More Than Just Clothing?
Why do you clothe yourself? Not with just anything that fits, but you want fashionable clothing that expresses who you are. What causes you to instinctively need to wear clothing, not just to stay warm, but also to express yourself visually? Isn’t it odd that you find the same instinct across the planet, no matter…
Sin… Missing the Noble Path
The most renowned Buddhist insight, or prajna, concerns what is often called The Noble Eightfold Path (Pali: ariya aṭṭhaṅgika magga; Sanskrit: āryāṣṭāṅgamārga). This comes from Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist texts which preserve ancient teachings of Gautama Buddha. The Sutta Pitaka sums up The Noble Eightfold Path, highlighting that ‘right concentration’ (the samadhi state) is a…
Now Corrupted… Like Orcs of Middle-Earth
We saw how the Bible portrays ourselves and others – that the Creator God originally made us in His Image. But the Hebrew Scriptures record how we then disobeyed the Creator God, giving rise to Kleshas in all of us. The Psalms are a collection of sacred songs and hymns used by the ancient Hebrews…
Mankind’s Duhkha Curse
We saw that ancient Hebrew scriptures record how cravings (Tanha) and wrong thoughts (Kleshas) arose at the beginning of history. But what about the suffering, pain or unhappiness, known as Duhkha/Duhkka? Duhkha and Tanha form the basis of the Four Noble Truths articulated by Gautama Buddha. Similarly, what about Impermanence, called anicca (Pāli) or anitya…
Origin of the Three Poisons and First Kleshas
The Three Poisons (Sanskrit: triviṣa; Tibetan: dug gsum) or the three unwholesome roots (Sanskrit: akuśala-mūla; Pāli: akusala-mūla), refer to the three root mental states that give rise to other mental states, or kleshas. Kleshas cloud the mind, resulting in harmful actions. Sages and monks have long understood the destructive power of the Three Root Poisons,…
The Adversary in the Cosmic Stupa
From ancient times, stupas (Sanskrit: स्तूप, = ’heap’) have played a prominent role in Buddhist ritual and devotional practice. Stupas, which are rounded earthen hemispheres or domes, contain relics such as bones of revered monks and nuns. They also contain a trodden path around the dome so pilgrims can walk around and meditate (pradakhshina). As Buddhism…
In the Image of God
One of Buddha’s fundamental insights was that of Pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit: प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद, Pāli: paṭiccasamuppāda). This states that all phenomena arise from other previous phenomena. All that we observe arises from preceding causes. This insight extends in the Four Noble Truths to explain karma and samsara. We can use the insight of arising phenomena to gain insight…