Apr 26, 2024
33 stories
Buddhist philosophy and practice
My interest in Buddhism started at university. Having majored in Sanskrit, I started reading BHS (Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit) and Pāli. For a while I was a novice monk in Sri Lanka. Later I added the West-Chinese Arśi-Kuči (Tokharian) monastic languages, and I discovered Japan.
On emptiness, impermanence, clinging, release, and the eightfold path: How to heal yourself from anxiety, suffering and feeling loss of control.
A brief analysis of the four foundations of mindfulness and the seven factors of enlightenment - a theoretical framework for the practice of vipasanna.
A travel story during a very hot summer in Kyoto, and how I learned that even The First Principle is empty.
Waka poetry by the Zen Master Dōgen Zenji 道元禅師 (1200 – 1253), and how Dōgen's poems aren't really poems. With reference to the work of Watsuji Tetsurō.
This is about how to teach emptiness, and how a students' prank is more valuable than all the knowledge in the world.
Reflections on "36 Practices for a More Meaningful Life by Exercising Compassion" by Lama Gyalsé Tokmé Zangpo (Tibet, 14th century CE).
On the concepts of Betweenness and Mesology - with reference to the works of Nishida Kitaro and Watsuji Tetsuro.
Reflections on provisional vs profound truths.
Reflections on the concept of freedom (from/of desires).
A classic Zen story, reinterpreted.
About the practice of being silent together.
On the concept of namarupa and its application in design, with a case study of Balkrishna Doshi's Aranyaka Housing Project.
