Mindfulness is not Sati?

Many people  (especially those who intensively try to put the Buddhas eightfold path into practice) have thought about the meaning of samma sati or “right mindfulness”. In fact, the meaning of this important aspect of Buddhist practice had troubled me for a long time 🙂 (1) The problem occurs when we start looking closer at […]

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Secret meditation instructions? Not with Sariputta on the watch.

The Buddhist world has seen its fair share of “gurus” and “masters” who introduced “secret meditation techniques” and found instructions nobody had ever seen before because they “allegedly” got lost or distorted over time – only to be (re-)introduced by the new spiritual leader, usually with side effects in favor of the discoverer commonly known […]

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Anussati – Sinking away from the wet in a stream of life

Practical ideas on anussati, sati and apilapanā. Today I would like to invite you to a short experiment. It is going to be very simple. Here is the experiment: Think of a random number, for instance “1325”. Now close your eyes and try to keep that number in your mind, continously, don’t forget it, don’t […]

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Coming back to remember – Sati II

You do not need to see the end of your dish washing activity and the beginning of you moving to the fridge. That is not going to stop mental proliferation from happening. And it won’t stop suffering – not in a million lifetimes. You can eat as many mandarins ‘mindfully’ as you like, you will […]

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Little Dhamma Talk by Bhante Vimala, yesterday…

Yesterday I stopped by at the new asapuwa in Tampa where Bhante Vimala gave a very very interesting little Dhamma talk, which I wanted to share with you. It was not planned or anything, but you know me, I like talking about the Dhamma and so I posed a question to the venerable Bhikkhu which […]

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How to really cleanse your mind

Can a practice that we undertake which does not purify our mind be truly considered “cultivation of the mind”? Let’s forget our concepts and ideas about “meditation” for a moment and look at some words of the Awakened One on how to clean and purify our minds as a beautiful activity in and by itself… [The […]

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The Lay Disciple

This is the disciple of the Buddha, living in the house. He has confidence in the Buddha’s awakening. He trains himself to purify his actions and his speech. He cultivates generosity, learns to sacrifice and let go. And this is his practice: he embraces opportunities to listen to the Dhamma – the word of the […]

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Ox and crops

From the Theragatha, the Verses of the Elders. 445. Uppajje te sace kodho, āvajja kakacūpamaṃ; Uppajje ce rase taṇhā, puttamaṃsūpamaṃ sara. (1) 446.‘‘Sace dhāvati cittaṃ te, kāmesu ca bhavesu ca; Khippaṃ niggaṇha satiyā, kiṭṭhādaṃ viya duppasun”ti; 445. If anger arises in you, turn to the simile of the saw; If craving for taste arises, remember […]

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Science of the present moment

What is the difference between right mindfulness and wrong mindfulness? [1] Both of them are part of an electric drill, if you excuse the mundane simile for a moment: It is the direction of the drill that ultimately matters, and which makes it “noble” – not its most basic feature: drilling. Let me explain. Even […]

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A “religion” of the year 2460 CE

“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience, which refuses dogmatic. If there’s any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism….”[1] said the famous Albert Einstein. Even before him the first translator of Buddhist Pali texts into German, the most talented Karl Eugen […]

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