Tag: Buddha
Gautama Buddha: Man or God?
Vishvapani Blomfield’s Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One is one of a new breed of Buddha biographies. For centuries there was really only one. Ashvaghosha’s epic poem Buddhacarita (Acts of the Buddha), written some three hundred years after the Buddha’s death, paints the Buddha myth familiar to generations of Buddhists. A [...]
The Secular Buddha (Stephen Batchelor)
An introduction to and overview of the concept of secular Buddhism. From Dharmaseed.org
No One to be Reborn
Critical thinking, skepticism, and experimentation are not only important in science, but our everyday lives. This is also true in Buddhism, and especially secular Buddhism. In fact, the Buddha was well known for saying, and I’m paraphrasing here: Don’t just believe what I say. Look for yourself.
When we first began practice with meditation, and mindfulness in our daily lives, many of the teachings prove themselves to be true. It becomes starkly apparent, for instance, that we cling to pleasure and we have aversion to pain. Our reactions to such clinging often cause a great deal of internal suffering. Mindfulness goes on to reveal much more than just clinging, but also how we create and recreate a feeling of self.
Refuge in the Buddha: Man or Myth?
The meaning and context of the word refuge in and of itself is worth some thought and consideration, especially to those of us who practice secular Buddhism. In most traditions, refuge is considered faith, faith that what one is being taught is true or valid. But those of us who come from and have rejected religious pasts, faith may cause one to balk. At the least, it should prompt you to question and explore just why and how one takes refuge.
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