Learn Buddhism

About the Authors

Meet the authors and find out what nice guys like them are doing in a place like this.

Articles:

• Meng’s story: How Buddhism Saved My Life.
• Soryu’s story: All Life Depends on This.
• Buddhism Day Sale: Buy Meng, Get Soryu Free.

Topic #1: Dharma and the Features of Buddhism

Dharma generally refers to the teachings of the Buddha. Here, we learn what Dharma really is, and some of the most important features of Buddhism.

Articles:

• What is Dharma? Dharma is Not Banging Your Head Against the Wall.
• Buddhism is So Serious We Have to Laugh.
• Buddhism is Seriously Cool With Science.
• Yes, Empiricism and Faith Can Play Together.
• A Secular Religion? Isn’t That Like a Joke?
• Buddhism Frees You.
• Buddhism is Needed in the World.
• Why We Use the Early Buddhist Texts So Much.
• Laugh Your Way to Enlightenment.
• Abbot’s Commentary: Why Buddhism Fascinates Me.

Topic #2: The Buddha

The Buddha is the founder of Buddhism.  Besides getting to know him, you will begin to see some fascinating features of Buddhism.  For example, you will find that gods play no role whatsoever in the enlightenment of the Buddha, which explains the nontheistic nature of Buddhism.  You will also find the central role of joy and investigation in the Buddha’s enlightenment, again foretelling their central role in his eventual teachings.

Articles:

• His Friends Call Him Bud: About the Buddha’s Story 
• The Buddha Formerly Known as Prince.
• The Four Sights, Four Signs, and Four Sighs
• The Noble Search, Without Google 
• When Mara Met Siddhattha 
• The Buddha’s Findings: The Middle Way and The Four Noble Truths 
• Abbot’s Commentary: How the Buddha’s Story is Useful 

Topic #3: The First Noble Truth

The solution to suffering begins with the willingness to face suffering.  A key insight here is that suffering arises from clinging to the five aggregates.

Articles:

• Suffering An Extremely Lucky Birth
• Dukkha is Suffering-plus-plus
• Five Aggregates
• Where Do You Draw the Line on the Aggregates?
• Clinging Onto Aggregates is Like Grabbing Hold of Water
• Life is Not All Suffering, and That is a Problem
• Turns Out You Didn’t Have to Order the Self-Destruct Option
• Abbot’s Commentary: Suffering is Not Inherent 

Topic #4: The Second Noble Truth

The second noble truth leads us to an extremely important insight, that suffering is caused. Therefore, the solution to suffering is simply to “uncause” the causes of suffering. Easy peasy.  Here, we also begin the explore the mystical side of Buddhism.

Articles:

• How to Stop a Bomb
• Where Suffering Stops Being About Religion and Starts Being About Cause and Effect
• Craving for Sensual Pleasure
• Craving for Existence and Non-Existence
• Not Mine, Not I, Not My Self 
• You Already Have Gold in that Ball of Dung
• Solve Problems Not By Creating More
• Abbot’s Commentary: Everyone Can Put It Down 

Topic #5: The Third Noble Truth

What is it like to be totally free of suffering? That is the topic of the third noble truth.

Articles:

• Smells Like Nirvana
• Aspects of Nirvana
• Call Now and Get 50% More Nirvana Absolutely Free  
• Four Stages of Enlightenment
• The Five Higher Fetters are Like a Subtle Final Boss
• Abbot’s Commentary: You Can Do It

Topic #6: The Fourth Noble Truth and the Noble Eightfold Path

How do you get to the state of total freedom from suffering? The path is contained within the fourth noble truth. It comes in eight parts, which is why is it also called <drumroll…> the Noble Eightfold Path.

Articles:

• The Noble Eightfold Path  
• Right View
• Right Intention
• Right Speech
• Right Action  
• Right Livelihood 
• Right Effort 
• Right Mindfulness and Right Samadhi
• Abbot’s Commentary: Practice Makes Right

Topic #7: Right Mindfulness

What is right mindfulness?  What are its features?  How does one establish it?  All your questions about right mindfulness answered here.  Rightly and mindfully, of course.

Articles:

• Mindfulness, My Foot 
• A Definitive Definition of Mindfulness 
• How to Establish Right Mindfulness 
• Mindfulness of the Body 
• Mindfulness of Sensations (Vedanā) 
• Mindfulness of Mind (Citta) 
• Mindfulness of Dharmas 
• Five Hindrances
• Is There Such a Thing As Wrong Mindfulness? 
• Abbot’s Commentary: Mindfulness is Relevant Always 

Topic #8: Right Samadhi

The Buddha taught a practice for meditative concentration that can not only lead people to nirvana, it is also immensely joyful and, more importantly, is accessible be everyone.  Yeah, I’m excited too!

Articles:

• How a Draper Became a World-Changing Scientist
• Right Samadhi and the Four Jhānas 
• The Buddhist Path is Filled With Joy 
• The Joy of Right Samadhi Makes a Smooth Ride to Nirvana 
• I Can’t Believe It’s Not Nirvana
• And Now You Have All Four Noble Truths 
• Abbot’s Commentary: Samadhi Changes Everything 

Topic #9: By Virtue of Virtue

Virtue is so powerful and essential that it shows up in virtually every single step of the Buddhist training.

Articles:

• Virtue, Samadhi, Wisdom 
• The Awesome Power of Virtue 
• By Transforming You, Virtue Transforms Society 
• Mundane Right View 
• Abbot’s Commentary: Virtue Makes Life Fun 

Topic #10: Dude, Where’s My Karma?

The Four Noble Truths are impressive enough, but underlying it is an entire body of foundational teachings, including karma, emptiness, and dependent origination.  Let’s dig deep.

Articles:

• Those Giant Heads Turn Out to Have Bodies 
• Three Marks of Existence and Four Dharma Seals 
• Dukkha Due to Formations 
• It’s Cause and Effect All Over Again
• Karma is What Our Parents Taught Us At Six  
• How to Karma Without Your Self 
• Dependent Origination, the Full Causal Chain of Suffering 
• Breaking the Causal Chain of Suffering 
• Emptiness is So Full 
• Two Levels of Truths, When One Just Isn’t Enough For You 
• Abbot’s Commentary: Karma is Power

Topic #11: How to Nirvana Yourself

Here, we aim right for the bullseye, with a topic on how we can all use the knowledge we gained above to see nirvana directly.

Articles:

• How a Little Dragon Found the Sea 
• Entering the Stream Makes You Cool 
• To Reach Stream-Entry, All You Need to Break are These Three Fetters 
• Stream-Entry is Seeing Nirvana 
• The Power of Non-selfness 
• Abbot’s Commentary: Enlightenment 

Topic #12: A Hero’s Journey to Nirvana

Here, we present the exciting story of how one of Soryu’s students arrived at the direct experience of nirvana. From that story, you will also gain a deeper understanding of liberation.

Articles:

• A Hero’s Story 
• The Journey to Nirvana is a Hero’s Journey 
• Susan’s Excellent Adventure, Part I: Early Victories 
• Susan’s Excellent Adventure, Part II: From Drudgery to Wisdom 
• Susan’s Excellent Adventure, Part III: Breaking Unstoppable Resistance 
• Looking Forward to Your Own Excellent Adventure to Nirvana?
• Abbot’s Commentary: Your Journey to Enlightenment

Topic #13: Gods Just Want to Have Fun

This may be very surprising to you, but it turns out that early Buddhism doesn’t care about miracles or gods.  We also answer the question of whether Buddhism is a religion or not.

Articles:

• That’s Why Buddhist Monks Are Not Allowed to Levitate 
• If You See the Buddha on the Road, Please Don’t Kill Him 
• The Greatest Miracle of All: The Miracle of Instruction 
• The Gods are Merely Our Friends (Coming soon, on 5 May PT)
• Wait, Didn’t Brahmā Create the Universe or Something?
• So Is Buddhism a Religion or Not?
• The Passing of Sāriputta
• Abbot’s Commentary: No One is In Charge

More to come, 3 times a week.