Author: Andrew Taggart
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How Could Craving Be At The Very Bottom Of My Suffering?
In “Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma,” said to be the first sutra given upon the Buddha’s awakening, we learn about the middle way, the four noble truths, and the eightfold noble path. It is the second noble truth that leaped out at me as I was re-reading this sutra yesterday. Recall that…
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‘When You Are Thinking Of Neither Good Nor Evil, What Is Your Original Face?’
In the Platform Sutra, Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Chan (Zen), is confronted by a monk seeking enlightenment. “Since the object of your coming is the dharma,” Huineng tells him, “refrain from thinking of anything and keep your mind blank. I will then teach you.” The Platform Sutra informs us that only after the monk…
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Mind And Body Arise While I Abide
A Meditation Mind arises and I abide. Body arises and I abide. Mind not arising, I abide. Body not arising, I abide. It, therefore, makes no difference whether mind or body arises or not, no difference at all to me. It is as if mind, intermittently arising, and body, intermittently arising, were to appear–to me–in…
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Every Real encounter Is A Genuine Challenge
Every real encounter is a genuine challenge. No doubt about it. Turn away from it and you’re clueless. Go searching for it and you’re going the wrong way. Leave it alone and you’re senseless. Now don’t noodle over it either. It’s got bite. How are you going to respond, huh? Huh? Now that your life is…
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Trying To Get Rid Of Something Is A Sign Of Ignorance
Trying to get rid of something is a sign of ignorance. The process begins with the thought or feeling (of which one is unaware): “This is unbearable. I cannot bear it any longer.” Boredom is like that. So is deep hurt. At the moment of apparent unbearability, fear and desire co-arise: the fear that it…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 