Category Archives: buddhist text

26Oct/17

4 Foundational Purifications for Enlightenment

10/26/2017buddhist, buddhist text, mantra peace prayer, meditation, shakyamuni buddha, shurangamabuddha, buddhist, buddhist text shurangama, mantra, meditation, precepts, teachingTCN

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.

18Oct/17

7 Possible Places to Locate the Divine Source

10/18/2017buddhism, Buddhist teachings, buddhist text, dharma, meditation, sacred text, shakyamuni buddha, shurangamabuddha, buddhism, mind, shakyamuni, shurangama, source, teaching, wisdomTCN

Where is the divine Source? If the Source is a father figure God in the sky for you, you may resolutely proclaim that God is UP there. If you’ve been meditating to the point that you’re just blissed out and could careless about the world, you may lift your gaze from your navel and slowly utter the words, “In here.” If you’re a nature lover who is fond of hiking, the whistles of the leaves, and the sounds of the birds, you may claim that the Source is everywhere in nature, in creatures large and small. What’s the right answer? Is there a right answer? Well, let me recount seven incorrect answers for you first.

12Feb/17

A Word of Caution before You Access Vinaya Texts for Ordained Monks and Nuns

02/12/2017Buddhist teachings, buddhist text, translationbhiksu, bhiksuni, buddhist, ethics, monk, nun, ordained, preceptTCN

In the vinaya, or code of discipline, section of the Buddhist canon, texts on precepts for ordained monks and nuns are only for them to access. In those texts, the Buddha specifically requested that anyone who has not accepted the several hundred bhikṣu and bhikṣuṇī precepts to leave the area.…

14Mar/11

Ancient Wisdom Needed for Contemporary Spirituality

03/14/2011buddhist text, contemporary spirituality, elephant jornal, great wisdom shastra, scandals, shakyamuni buddha, sixth patriarch, translation, wisdombuddha, buddhist text, contemporary spirituality, elephant jornal, great wisdom shastra, scandals, shakyamuni, sixth patriarch, translation, wisdomTCN

More harrowing tales of sex scandals, money laundering, power struggles and coercive threats. . . Apparently Buddhism in the West is no different than any other faith tradition. No matter how developed, an organizational structure comes to embody some aspect of unhealthy cultic dynamics— and the denial of such dynamics, or a lack of awareness of them, is one of the most common indicators of this disease.