Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Bodhisattva Road

Home
Buddhist

2017-01-31T11:45:23-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Anatta and the Mind

Last updated on: January 31, 2017 at 11:45 am By Daniel Scharpenburg

Our purpose on the Buddhist path is to come to an understanding of anatta, or no self. I’ve heard the claim made that that is really the core of the Buddhist path, the thing that all the rest stems from. When we understand anatta intuitively, then there is the end of suffering and delusion. Attachment to the self is strongly rooted in us and a difficult thing to wrestle with. It’s the root of our suffering and delusion, so we... Read more

2017-01-31T13:26:57-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Common Obstacles to Meditation Practice

Last updated on: January 31, 2017 at 1:26 pm By Daniel Scharpenburg

photo by Moyan Brenn, flickrcc There are a few obstacles that often come up in meditation practice. I’m going to go over what the most common obstacles are and a few strategies for how to manage them. Here are six common obstacles. 1.Laziness:This is a lack of appreciation for the path. It a difficulty getting to the cushion for our practice. Sometimes we look for excuses to avoid meditating because we are lazy. 2.Forgetfulness: This is simply forgetting to practice.... Read more

2017-01-19T22:48:39-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“The Story of God” Heaven In Cambodia

Last updated on: January 19, 2017 at 10:48 pm By Daniel Scharpenburg

The second episode of “The Story of God” season 2 is about concepts regarding heaven and hell. Like the first episode, Morgan Freeman and the producers had to stretch things a bit to find a way to include Buddhism. In this episode Freeman travels to the jungles of Cambodia to a place called Angkor Wat (City of Temples), the large religious monument in the world. It’s been a Buddhist temple for hundreds of years, prior to that it was a... Read more

2017-01-05T23:18:32-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“The Story of God” Reincarnated Teachers

Last updated on: January 5, 2017 at 11:18 pm By Daniel Scharpenburg

The second season of “The Story of God”(airing January 16th on National Geographic) is about “chosen ones”. It purports to be about people who were chosen by God (for example: Moses), but that doesn’t make much sense in a Buddhist context. The first segment of the first episode of the season starts with a Buddhist family. Morgan Freeman goes to visit a family of Tibetan immigrants in Minnesota. The only child in this family is a nine year old boy... Read more

2016-12-21T18:22:07-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Ikkyu Burned His Enlightenment Certificate

Last updated on: December 21, 2016 at 6:22 pm By Daniel Scharpenburg

photo by Hartwig, Flickr cc Ikkyu is a big inspiration to me. He didn’t settle down. The Zen culture in the 1400s in Japan may have been different than the Zen culture here and now, but maybe in a lot of ways it was the same. He burned his Enlightenment certificate because he saw people in the temples who seemed fake, just going through the motions, just trying to get the most promotions and the best temple positions, instead of... Read more

2016-10-14T17:06:39-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Ganesh in a Liquor Store

Last updated on: October 14, 2016 at 5:06 pm By Daniel Scharpenburg

2016-04-19T17:15:05-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Stages in the Bodhisattva’s Journey

Last updated on: April 19, 2016 at 5:15 pm By Daniel Scharpenburg

Bodhi, or awakening, is present in all of us. In a sense it could be said that we’re all Bodhisattvas, or Enlightenment beings, because we all have this awakening as our true nature. In the case of most of us our minds are obscured by delusion and ignorance, so we don’t see our true nature as Enlightened. When we start to penetrate this delusion and recognize our true nature, stages of actualization appear. Bodhicitta is where it starts. This is... Read more

2016-04-19T17:15:51-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Lotus

Last updated on: April 19, 2016 at 5:15 pm By Daniel Scharpenburg

The Lotus flower is a beautiful plant. It lives in the water. It often comes out of water that’s muddy and unclean. But with great beauty, it blooms. This is a common symbol in Buddhism. You can see it all over the place in Buddhist art. It’s really common for images of Bodhisattvas to be seen sitting on giant lotus flowers, and maybe holding small ones too. One of the most well known mantras “OM MANI PADME HUM” means “the... Read more

2016-07-06T07:42:56-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Dalai Lama turns 81

Last updated on: July 6, 2016 at 7:42 am By Daniel Scharpenburg

His holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is celebrating his 81st birthday in Dharamsala today. Formerly both the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people, he fled to India in 1959 to escape the Chinese occupation of Tibet. He is the leader of one specific school of Tibetan Buddhism, but since the exile he has done his best to represent all of the Tibetan people. He is an advocate for nonsectarian approaches to Buddhist practice. Since his exile he has... Read more

2016-06-15T06:39:57-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Loss and the Spiritual Path

Last updated on: June 15, 2016 at 6:39 am By Daniel Scharpenburg

The First Noble Truth is that Life is Suffering. I think a lot of us convert Buddhists come to the path because we suffer. It’s not that Buddhism can be reduced to a simple self help program, it’s just that sometimes people that are having a hard time are drawn to it. Of course, we all have a hard time in life sometimes. But I think Buddhism has something special to offer in that regard. Part of the Buddha’s story... Read more

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was raised from the dead by Peter in Joppa?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Lazarus Eutychus Tabitha The widow's son

Support this
Column

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 37 Practices blog bodhisattva book review boundless heart buddha buddhism buddhism for beginners compass of zen compassion dhammapada dharma emptiness Faith in Mind fearless heart han shan impermanence inspiration interfaith koans life Lojong mahayana meditation mind training mirror of zen movie review nagarjuna news questions recording song of mind steps to the great perfection suffering sutras suttas Uncategorized vajrayana video videos zen

Select a Month July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 September 2021 August 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 August 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Buddhist