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...

The Pāli discourses of the Buddha are roughly two-and-half millennia hold, and yet they still provide an incredibly precise guide to...

In Sanskrit and Pāli, yoga literally means 'yoke.' Like the yoke put by farmers on the neck of oxen. In a more metaphorical sense, yoga...

Ordinarily, attention tends to be absorbed in this or that. Or rather, it tries to be absorbed, it seeks absorption, it craves for it....

Meditation is a training in mental disobedience, based on four main points: (1) Keep the context in mind. Don't focus on things, don't...

The discourses of the Buddha are fond of emphasising attitudes of dispassion, weariness, absence of desire and craving, equanimity,...