The Mind is the Source of Unwholesomeness
The Buddha often explained emptiness and impermanence by getting people to think about how phenomena arise, change, and decline.
The Buddha often explained emptiness and impermanence by getting people to think about how phenomena arise, change, and decline.
When we can practice viewing ourselves and others through a lens of oneness, we will no longer engage in meaningless mind games that prevent us from forming positive connections with all beings.
Greed narrows our vision as it obscures the wealth of wisdom contained in our inherent Buddha nature.
The great masters of the Chan School have always been like leisurely clouds and wild cranes, sometimes dwelling in the mountain forests, sometimes living by the water.
Meditation is not about sitting quietly with your eyes closed—this is just one method for developing meditative concentration. What matters in meditation is being able to contemplate and focus the mind.
Offering lamps at Buddhist temples and stupas is a common practice. The Flower Adornment Sutra says, “The lamp of wisdom can break through all forms of darkness.”
As such, lamps represent the light of wisdom that pierces through the darkness of ignorance. This empowers sentient beings encumbered by confusion.
The Buddhist practice of offering lamps originates from the
actions of a poor girl named Nanda. Her story can be read in The Prophecy of King Ajatasatru Becoming a Buddha Sutra, which tells us that the merit for offering a lamp can ever lead one to become a Buddha.