Buddha Weekly's Latest Features
How Your Spirituality and Buddhist Refuge Can Impact Your Health — a Buddhist Approach to Healthy Faith
Numerous medical research studies support the concept that faith and spirituality are "good for your health." Although many mistake one for the other — and they have some things in common — faith and spirituality are quite different. They both contain the idea of developing a relationship with a higher understanding or...
Why do Buddhas and Enlightened Beings need offerings? The simple answer: they don’t. The better answer is…
Nothing confuses people interested in Buddhism — or new to the Dharma — more than the topic of offerings. It seems counter-intuitive from a "western" point-of-view. Buddhas have gone beyond all attachment, cravings or even the sense of "self" and "other" so why would an Enlightened Being appreciate an offering of fruit, incense,...
Guanyin: “Most Widely Beloved Buddhist Divinity”; Devotion to the 33 Forms of Compassion and Love
Guanyin is often referred to as the "most widely beloved Buddhist Divinity."[2] Why? Because Her love is unconditional, all-embracing — with all 1000 arms! — and She will never cease her merciful activity until all beings are rescued from Samsara's suffering. Guanshiyin Bodhisattva's popularity and forms eclipse any dualistic attempts to define...
Heruka Chakrasamvara and Vajrayogini’s Special Months: Honoring the Blissful Wisdom Mother in the 11th Month and the Compassionate Hero in the 12th
Each year, Vajrayana Buddhists honor and celebrate the highest manifestations of Wisdom and Compassion in the 11th and 12th Lunar months — and especially on the Tsog feast offering days on the waning and waxing moons in those special months. These two annual Tsog Offerings are considered "Special" and auspicious and are...
Dealing with the Monkey King: Meditation Techniques for People With Unsettled Monkey Minds
Coping with the Monkey Mind — a meditation term indicating an "unsettled; restless; capricious; whimsical; fanciful; inconstant; confused; indecisive; uncontrollable" mind — is one of the biggest obstacles to meditation and mindfulness practice in Buddhism. The monkey mind disturbs peaceful reflection and creates endless obstacles to mindfulness practice, and, although it sounds...
The Science Of Your Center: The Vagus Nerve, Your Meditation Highway, And The Parasympathetic Nervous System; How Meditation Works Positively on the Body
By Anne Green The Scientific Buddhist examines Dharma from the point of view of science. Do you have a topic idea? Buddhism is known for its emphasis on meditation and meditative techniques. People from all walks of life have used Buddhist techniques to ‘relax’ and ‘de-stress’, despite neither...
The 16 Defilements of the Mind, and the Simile of the Cloth: Vitthupama Sutta
Purification of mind is a critical practice in all schools and lineages of Buddhism. In the Vatthupama Sutta [full translation in English below] Buddha explains the concept with the simile of the stained cloth: "Monks, suppose a cloth were clean and bright, and a dyer dipped it in some dye or other,...
How Your Faith Can Make You Happier? 7 Buddhist practices and beliefs that generate happiness
Purposelessness, stress, anxiety, and depression are common in our modern world. However, most people ignore their root causes. Why are most people unhappy? According to Thomas Moore, the answer to this question depends on the Buddha Nature or soul. Everyone has Buddha Nature or soul that needs to be taken care of....
The Three Svabhāva and The Five Dharmas: important core concepts from the Laṅkāvātara Sutra — full English Sutra at end of commentary
The Lankavatara Sutra is an important text to both the Zen and the Cittamātra (Mind Only) Schools of Mahayana Buddhism. Although there are many important concepts and themes in this sutra, we will explore only two in this brief essay. Commentary by Eddie Sobenes Full English translation of all chapters of Lankavatara...
Bliss helps us understand Emptiness without nihilism: Vajrayana develops faster insight through the balance of bliss and emptiness, compassion and wisdom, mandala and deity
"Emptiness is not a specialty of Vajrayana. Yidam meditation is part of Vajrayana, but is not the special quality of the Vajrayana. The special quality [that enhances the practice] really is the bliss." — Gelek Rimpoche [2] There is no Vajrayana Buddhism without the concept of bliss. In Buddhism generally, the...
December 10 is Lama Tsongkhapa Day 2020 — Ganden Ngamchoe, anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s parinirvana!
The paranirvana of the great sage of the Land of Snows, Lama Je Tsong Khapa, is celebrated on December 10, 2020 this year. [Practice links in resources below.] One of the best ways to honor the great Buddha of the Land of Snows is with the recitation of The Glorious One of...
