buddhist Archives - The Compassion Network

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3 Analogies that Describe Enlightening Progress in Your Practice

TCN / 01/06/2018

It helps to know that you are on track with your practice, Here are 3 similes in Mahayana Buddhist texts that enlightened beings often employ to describe mostly indescribably states of mind.

buddhist, buddhist text, mantra peace prayer, meditation, shakyamuni buddha, shurangama

4 Foundational Purifications for Enlightenment

TCN / 10/26/2017

If you expect to evolve spiritually, you must exert yourself. If you expect miracle to strike simply because you willed it, it’s not likely to happen. You must cultivate the terra firma of your soul so it flowers fruits. You must cleanse the vessel that carries the messages of wisdom and compassion. You must polish the instrument that ignites and channels the transcendental. According to the Shurangama Sutra, a Mahayana Buddhist text that is revered for its teachings on meditation a long and powerful Buddhist mantra, here are four ways to dig deep into the soil of your soul, to bath your messenger, and to make your physical instrument for practice shine.

buddhism, Buddhism Buddhist teachings scripture teacher advice patience text sacred learning Chinese English, buddhist, Buddhist canon, Buddhist teachings, listening, meditation, practice, spiritual, zen

11 Steps to Listening: a Buddhist Meditative Practice

TCN / 08/20/2017

1. Find an uninterrupted period of time, whether five minutes or an hour. 2. Find a quiet place that you can hopefully establish as your sacred space for regular practice. 3. Sit down on a cushion or your bed. It helps to have a cushion or pillow below your buttocks. Sit with your legs crossed.

buddhist, Buddhist teachings, listening, shurangama, spiritual, zen

8 Listening Exercises

TCN / 08/10/2017

1. Listen for the sounds around you now: people’s voices, TV, music, cars, chirps, breeze. . . Stop what you’re doing. For three seconds, still yourself and hear what’s around you. 2. Listen for the sound of silence. Turn off any noise in your control. At a time when all’s…

buddhist, Buddhist teachings, religious, spiritual, suffering

8 Reflections on Suffering upon Rising from Practice

TCN / 08/07/2017

First, “practice” in the Buddhist sense is that it is a regular and consistent sacred routine that you engage in on the spiritual path. It is often compared to nurturing a seed with nutrients consistently until it blossoms. “Practice” also in the sense that it is always evolving. I hesitate…

buddhism, buddhist, Buddhist teachings, guanyin, heart, listening, spiritual, wisdom, zen

7 Paradoxical Teachings in Buddhism

TCN / 06/13/2017

Typically, we reject contradictions. Buddhists, however, embrace a number of oxymora that serve as levers for opening into profundity likened to light at the end of the tunnel. The unexpected folding into of what is unfolding, and the unfolding of that which is enfolded bend our conscious mind so that…

buddhism, Buddhism Buddhist teachings scripture teacher advice patience text sacred learning Chinese English, buddhist, Buddhist teachings, life, religion, religious

5 Buddhist Observations about Life being Awesome

TCN / 02/13/2017

1. We get to choose that which shapes us. Words shape us. Words originate from thoughts. Thoughts matter – a Buddhist belief. Buddhists hardly use the word awesome. Buddhists hardly use the word awesome to describe life. It is awesome that I am using the word here now and using…

buddhism, Buddhism Buddhist teachings sutra scripture, buddhist, disciple, instruction, relationship, sangha, student, teacher

Admonitions: Part II

TCN / 07/24/2014

More from Buddhist monastic teachers. With instructions from different people, pronouns shift.Again, as explained more fully in “Admonitions: Part I“, these instructions were directed at monks and nuns and excerpted from my translation of Admonitions for Monastics 緇門警訓. — Even monastics perpetrate grave errors . . . . behavior that can be…

buddhism, Buddhism Buddhist teachings sutra scripture, buddhist, disciple, instruction, relationship, sangha, student, teacher

Admonitions: Part I

TCN / 07/16/2014

The Buddha Shakyamuni never established any rules for his Order until problems developed. Most of the Buddhist proscriptions were established as individual cases occurred. For instance, it was not until several dozen monks committed suicide by their own or another’s hands due to extreme (and excessive) disgust for their bodies,…

buddhist, monastics, order, practice, scripture, studies, sutra

Requisite Subjects of Study for Monastics

TCN / 02/22/2011

Chinese Mahayana Sutra From the Records of Preeminent Monastics Translating Sutras. Converting Sanskrit into Chinese, [or in contemporary times, to English and other languages] the sutras can bridge ordinary people and sainthood. They turn the Dharma wheel and are teachers for all Buddhas. Understanding the Meaning. Searching through the…