Month: September 2021
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Expounding On The Nature Of Dukkha: ‘Something Here Isn’t Right’
English Buddhist scholar Peter Harvey has written a fine paper in which he discusses “Dukkha, Non-self, and the Teaching of the Four ‘Noble Truths” (PDF here). In but a few words, the Buddha seeks to sketch the human, or really creaturely, condition (Harvey translation and internal notes): Now this, monks, for the spiritually ennobled, is…
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The First Noble Truth: A Lot Of Hurt
In “Four Noble Truths,” published by The Oxford Research of Encyclopedias, Buddhist scholar Carol S. Anderson discusses, well, the Four Noble Truths. For many years, I’ve been fascinated by the first one, the one that gets the whole inquiry underway. Sometimes it’s said–“There is suffering”–but that feels too vague, especially if we add a qualifier…
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Happiness And Suffering, Socrates And The Buddha
The Dalai Lama often states, “Everyone wants to be happy. Nobody wants to suffer.” Irrefutable! The power of these two claims might be lost on us, however, if we simply gloss over them, accepting them as mere bromides. If, instead, we examine them, we find that they are real jewels. Socratic Question Consider the first…
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Suffering, Cluelessness, & A Closed Heart: And Three Respective Paths
Three Paths My thesis is that there are three higher paths available to us today: The Path of Awakening The Path of Wisdom The Path of Love Each is a response to either a perennial concern or to a historical predicament. Or both. 0. Non-reduction A brief objection: couldn’t all three paths be reduced to…
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Charity, Lovableness, And Lovingkindness (Metta)
And here we have quite a beautiful point about metta, or lovingkindness practice, as it pertains to one’s enemies: In his closing discussion on loving-kindness, Buddhaghosa asks, ‘What is the proximate cause of loving-kindness?’ The answer is the observation of lovableness in the person to whom you are attending. B. Alan Wallace, The Four Immeasurables:…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 