What leads to what
In its most basic form, the Buddhist theory of ‘dependent origination’ means simply this: Stuff leads to other stuff. When you’re young, you don’t realise that stuff leads to other stuff. You’re living pretty much for the moment. You do things because they’re fun, or to see what they’re like, or whatever. Time goes by ...
Why Buddhists bow
When people contact me about the blog, one thing they often say is that they like what Buddhism has to say, but they don’t like ‘all the religion stuff’ that goes with it. I generally agree. I’m not much of a one for ‘all the religion stuff’ either. I guess that’s why I attract the ...
The language of success: a Buddhist perspective
Recently I listened to a fantastic motivational speaker. He gets paid a ridiculous amount of money for doing what he does and speaks to tens of thousands of people at a time. I felt really pumped after listening to him. Yes, there is greatness in me. Yes, I have the power to have an amazing life. Yes, I ...
Creating the right conditions for a happy life
Buddhism argues that all phenomena are related to other phenomena. They come into and out of being based on conditions we tend to being ‘outside’ of ‘themselves’. (I put all the quotation marks in because those concepts are only provisionally useful from a Buddhist perspective, but that’s for another post). This ‘stuff being dependent on ...
Should we pay Buddhist teachers?
As you may know, I’m currently trying to help Brad Warner come to the UK to do some speaking events later in the year to promote his new book. (So new it’s not even out yet). Today he wrote an interesting post about Dharma teaching and money. Most of the comments seemed to struggle with ...