The Path to Enlightenment, the Lam Rim in Tibetan Buddhism, is divided in three ‘stages’ or three motivations. I started out my explaining the Beginners Motivation. It is, as Lodro Rinzler says in his upcoming ‘The Buddha Walks into a... Read More...
My Buddhism for today, why I choose only ONE lineage…
As I’ve noted before, on my Dutch blog people respond very critically. This is often annoying, but they also sometimes ask great questions. The question asked in this case was: doesn’t your present path contradict your earlier assertion... Read More...
Tibetan Buddhism and Lam Rim
I was on a Tibetan Buddhist (FPMT) retreat for half of August, so what I was able to share with you all since then was mostly inspired by that tradition. I wrote one book review: When the chocolate runs out, Lama Yeshe. I’ve become a big... Read More...
Gratitude meditation – thanking our teachers
I’ve written about gratitude before, but I think the topic merits a revisit. For one thing: in our culture we’re taught, by psychologists, to face up to the negative things our parents and teachers did to us as we grew up. Facing up to our... Read More...
Beginners motivation in Mahayana Buddhism
I’ve decided to translate what I learned over the past two weeks at an FPMT Lam Rim retreat into blog posts by simply explaining to you all my understanding of some basic concepts from those teachings. I am of course merely a beginner on this... Read More...
Between drowsiness and distraction: meditation and certainty
I was on an intense FPMT Lam Rim retreat for the past two weeks. One of the things they teach is meditation: meditation techniques as well as pitfalls. On all levels of meditation one of the pitfalls is not finding a middle ground between drowsiness... Read More...
Overview last month: uncertainties, channeling, soul mate, action…
Since my last overview I wrote the following blog posts on here: Certainty, uncertainty and spirituality (3) Channeling: real, unreal? Divine, human? (18) You are your Soul Mate, Rick Singer (1) Mahatmas versus Ascended Masters (8) What we say,... Read More...
Certainty, uncertainty and spirituality
I have been in a very neti-neti (not this, not that) mood for a while now, in terms of what I share on this blog. Not channeling, Not Krishnamurti, Not ideals… If you add in the topics I’ve considered writing about there’s even more:... Read More...
Channeling: real, unreal? Divine, human?
On my recent post about Mahatmas, someone commented that Ascended Masters sound a lot like spirit guides and that the main thing is they know more than we do. Well, perhaps. The main issue here, it seems to me, isn’t so much knowledge as wisdom.... Read More...
You are your Soul Mate, Rick Singer
Within your own house dwells the treasure of joy, So why do you go begging from door to door. Chinese proverb As human beings we are consistently involved in an endless search for something external to fill the void within us. We search for the... Read More...