The Function of Buddhism
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The transformational purpose of Buddhist practice.
Courtesy of Greg Peterson, CC BY-SA 3.0
Table of Contents
- Articles (13)
- Audio/Video (30)
- Booklets (12)
- Canonical Works (41)
- Essays (13)
- Excerpts (1)
- Monographs (7)
- Reference Shelf (2)
- Subtopics (2)
Articles (13)
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The teaching of the four noble truths reflects a medical scheme of diagnosis, which proceeds from recognition of the disease, dukkha, to identifying its cause, craving.
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the vast majority of Americans (97 percent) are forfeiting the chance to enhance their well-being by practicing real generosity with their money.
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A short brief in a psychiatric journal summarizing the psychotherapeutic potential of Buddhist meditation.
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In this essay, Judith Shklar (not a Buddhist) ponders the implications of placing cruelty first (as the Buddha did). She shows how this position stands at odds with both Christian piety and neoliberal apathy and carves out a more realistic humanism than either extreme.
Audio/Video (30)
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Ajahn Brahm gives a talk on how to achieve harmony in real life, where we all-too-often meet difficult people.
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The Buddha taught us how to be happy: not by chasing after it but by giving.
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Bhante J gives a brief and standard explanation of the basic precepts of Buddhist morality.
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An overview of the Buddhist life and path, and what it really means to “go forth” into freedom.
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People usually think that happiness comes from chasing after the senses. Ven Hong Ci gives a passionate argument against this default way of being in the world, and encourages us to guard our senses if we want real happiness.
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A series of Dhamma talks delivered to series beginners over the course of a few months in 2009. The talks give a penetrating introduction to the essence of the teachings and are recommended for all.
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An end to The Los Angeles Course, Bhante encourages us to use our human life wisely.
Booklets (12)
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They are the mature ones, the old campaigners of saṃsāra, who have had their fill of loving and hating. They are beginning to feel instinctively that freedom lies in letting go. It is to such people really that the Buddha spoke. The rest merely happened to be present
Canonical Works (41)
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Ānanda, are all precepts and observances, lifestyles, and spiritual paths fruitful?
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Mendicants, there are these seven kinds of wealth. What seven? The wealth of faith, ethical conduct, conscience, prudence, learning, generosity, and wisdom.
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The Buddha gives the causal chain that leads to ignorance and the chain leading to the Awakening Factors.
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It’s only natural that joy springs up when you have no regrets.
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This inspiring set of verses, the penultimate of the Dhammapada, outlines the contours of the holy life and encourages us to dedicate ourselves diligently to the path.
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The fire of lust burns mortals; Infatuated by sensual pleasures
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Venerable Puṇṇa Mantāṇiputta teaches Venerable Sāriputta about the Buddha’s path of purification, explaining that the purification of ethics and mind are not the goal, but are rather stages of the path to it.
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When, bhikkhus, a carpenter or a carpenter’s apprentice looks at the handle of his adze, he sees the impressions of his fingers and his thumb, but he does not know: ‘So much of the adze handle has been worn away today, so much yesterday, so much earlier.’ But when it has worn away, the knowledge occurs to him: it has worn away.
Essays (13)
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When you are repelled by everything, there is nothing to grasp onto and craving becomes impossible.
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We’ve got these defilements, they are within us and they keep coming up all the time. They act like demons. They cause one trouble the whole time. So one does the meditation practice and it’s quite hard work for quite a long time, but steadily the results come. Bit by bit they come.
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…when these people meditate they’re awfully grim.
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If a sensation of itchiness intervenes and the yogi desires to scratch because it is hard to bear, both the sensation and the desire to get rid of it should be noted, without immediately getting rid of the sensation by scratching.
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Overall, Buddhist practice can be seen as a combination of two processes: the cultivation and growth of wholesome, positive mental states, and the weakening, and final eradication, of mental ‘defilements’.
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Co-incidence of two phenomena, even when repeated, does not mean that one phenomenon is the cause of the other. To claim that activity in the brain causes awareness, or mind, is plainly unscientific.
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We have to practice step by step to attain succeeding levels of happiness, starting with the happiness that arises from giving, to the happiness from keeping the precepts, not hurting others, to the happiness from samadhi or mental discipline.
Excerpts (1)
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A short summary and explanation of MN 24: the simile of the charioteer which explains how the Buddhist path functions to bootstrap us out of delusion.
Monographs (7)
Reference Shelf (2)
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A small chart summarizing the four stages of enlightenment.