Feb 23, 20216 minEmptinessReducing the extent to which we suffer depends upon lessening feelings of anguish and unfulfilled desire. These are feelings which arise...
Jan 20, 20216 minDoing and Non-doingAs is well known, Buddhism arrived in China, probably in the first century CE, and evolved gradually into the tradition that now we term...
Dec 21, 20205 minSleeping, Dreaming, Waking and AwakeningWhen we are in a state of deep sleep we are not aware of anything. For most, if not all, of us we are only aware that we have ‘slept...
Nov 25, 20206 minYou and MeLet’s try a thought experiment. I am here and you are there. As it happens, I am in the UK and you, perhaps, are in the USA or in India,...
Nov 8, 20205 minAnxiety and Covid-19At the present moment in late 2020 the presence of Covid is making us anxious about our futures, fearful for the lives of those we love...
Oct 27, 20207 minBeyond BeliefA question often asked is whether Buddhism is a religion or whether one can practice its methods in the absence of any belief in...
Oct 6, 20207 minTotal AttentionI want to pursue further the distinction between thought and our wider intelligence by looking at what Jiddhu Krishnamurti (K) called...
Sep 28, 20208 minWhat Lies Beyond Thought?‘But before you think about something which you do not know, you must find out what thinking is, must you not?’ -Jiddhu Krishnamurti We...
Sep 15, 20205 minThinkingIn the previous post we looked at how primitive experience, and in particular sensation and perception, arose during the course of our...
Aug 31, 20206 minSensation, Perception and SelfhoodWe looked in the previous post at how the Buddhist analysis describes the arising of ignorance, the way that we mistake ourselves for a...
Aug 24, 20204 minIgnoranceBuddhism emphasises how everything and every experience is dependent on other things and on other experiences. This is the idea of...
Jul 27, 20207 minChild and Adult SelvesWe have argued previously that from the Buddhist perspective the self-view is pervasive but ultimately illusory. Meditation helps us to...
Jul 18, 20207 minUniversal ConstructorsThe apparent link between biological and cultural evolution, as set out in the previous post, was identified by the philosopher Karl...
Jul 13, 20207 minSolving Problems: Identity and IntelligenceI believe that determining our collective identity can assist us to find solutions to our most pressing problems- environmental, social,...
Jul 5, 20206 minThe Transparent ViewWe saw in a previous post how the view that we have of the world and of our self, the outer and the inner view, is transparent. We...
Jun 27, 20207 minThree WorldsThe debate about whether consciousness is reflexive, as discussed in last week’s post, is related to the fact that we experience an inner...
Jun 19, 20208 minSelf, Self-Consciousness and PresenceThe Buddhist contribution to the role of selfhood in our lives appears originally to have been a purely pragmatic one. The historical...
Jun 12, 20206 minMany Voices: No SelvesIdentity is an absorbing human problem, one that seems to fascinate us now more than ever. In the 1950s, thirty-seven English language...
Jun 7, 20207 minWhy Buddhism is TrueI want to demonstrate how ideas based on a Buddhist approach to contentment and fulfilment are already a powerful force in contemporary...
Jun 1, 20207 minNo Self, No Subject, No Suffering?In previous posts we began with the notion of identity and how what appears to be most intimate is our self. It is difficult to evade or...