What is, and what is not, enlightenment? Don't get off at the wrong stop!
Author: Five
Death: The Big Picture
What can we know about death - before doing it?
Death – The End?
How do we live, if death will be the end? But will it?
Commentary on a verse of “Death – The End?”
What is death not the end of?
Thinking, Looking, Wondering
My Midas touch: everything I see turns to thought
Dictionary 1
Dharma is about realising the truth, and I feel there is scope for a truer understanding of many words we use, so I am compiling a dictionary of straight-talking definitions.
Silencing thinking
Be careful about equating the ability to calm thinking with being a Buddhist master. How much freedom from thinking do we need, to reach the jewel of understanding which then makes thinking not a problem? We could spend years manipulating our mind into thought-free states unnecessarily.
Meditation to question the self
In our own lives we can easily find things we thought were true which we subsequently think not to be true. So our pursuit of the truth about self can not depend upon thinking. We need another way of knowing, one more direct than our thinking.
What is the Buddhist Path?
Traditionally the path is seen as the overcoming of ignorance, not-seeing, 'avidya', where seeing means seeing our True Nature. I propose an additional way of understanding how the path consists of overcoming avidya: what is not seen is the path itself.
What could meditation offer?
We spend our precious lives hopping from temporary, dependent, partial happiness to the next temporary, dependent, partial happiness. Meditation has the potential to show us the workings of this process of seeking 'satisfaction'... It is possible to see beyond that and to open towards real fulfilment which is not dependent upon temporary conditions.
Pieces of Five 