Essential Buddhist teachings to improve your mindfulness practice.
What are the five aggregates? In Buddhism, they are the building blocks that we typically use to construct our sense of self. The Buddha classified the constituents of body and mind into five categories known as “the five aggregates of clinging”: form, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. In his book Satipatthana: The Direct Path … Read more
Can you be an atheist and a Buddhist? From what I’ve read, I can tell you that seeking an answer to this question will surface two groups of people – those who’ll tell you that it’s possible and those who’ll tell you that it’s not. Among the former is Stephen Batchelor, the author of … Read more
As a lover of ancient wisdom, I’ve been slowly savoring the now classic Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings — an extraordinary portal into the minds of the greatest sages of the East, oscillating between the transcendent and the mundane in the most thought-shattering way possible. From short stories that … Read more
For the past few years, I’ve been trying to become a better Buddhist. And the most challenging part of that endeavor — which I mentioned in my previous article — is upholding the Five Precepts. I’m revisiting this topic again in this article because I keep breaking some of the precepts, despite my best efforts … Read more