In a chess game, the first moves are usually quite important. Players aim at taking some control of the center of the board and allow...

How should I practice? This is an important question, and its answer is made somehow fuzzy by the multitude of different methods,...

Force develops against resistance. Growth demands constraints. When constraints work systematically and methodically, they create a...

In the beginning of the Bhagavad Gītā (2.50) we encounter the following short definition: yogaḥ karmasu kuśalam, which might be...

There is a condition in which life flows by itself. It does not matter what exactly is experienced, but whatever happens seems to unfold...

We might encounter teachings, practices, and other aspects of contemplative traditions in a pretty random way: a Buddha Head looking out...

Whatever feeling is felt (pleasant, unpleasant or neutral), do not indulge in craving for the pleasant, or in aversion for the...

Death is one of the most important topics for recollection, which has an immense potential in terms of fostering practice and developing...

In the Udana 3.5 there is this short stanza: “Sati kāyagatā upaṭṭhitā, Chasu phassāyatanesu saṁvuto; Satataṁ bhikkhu samāhito, Jaññā...

(Author's cut from An Introduction to Friendliness, §1 Reflections) It is impossible to have experience without being somehow involved...

Formal meditative practice is just a piece (important, but just a piece) in the broader picture presented in the discourses. And how to...

In the beginning, it was just a word document with a few notes, excerpts and comments. It should have been a bit more than an annotated...

In most standard presentations of the Buddha's teachings, the emphasis lies on the idea that an individual can achieve freedom by relying...

As any pianist would know, there are two boundaries within which any interpretation has to move. On the one hand, one is confronted with...

The discourses present the teachings of the Buddha as potentially addressed to everybody, although they also make it clear that not...

The Pāli canon contains many thousands of discourses (they are even difficult to count exactly, 8000? 10000? more?), spanning from a few...

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) said: 'by sculpture I understand that which one does by force of taking away' ('per scultura io...

A core business of the practice presented in the discourses is to reach a form of dispassion and emotional neutrality. This means that no...

Even superficial familiarity with the history of philosophy and ideas (especially from a global perspective) immediately reveals that...

The term 'awakening' (and even more 'enlightenment') is commonly used in relation to a wide range of diverse experiences, usually...