Year: 2016

5, 8 and 10 Precepts

Here is a comparison of 5, 8 and 10 precepts.  The Buddhist who follows five precepts is known as a regular lay Buddhist.  The person who follows 8 precepts is known as a serious Buddhist yogi.   The person who follows the 10 precepts is known as a novice monk.  A bhikkhu follows 227 rules. It is important to know these classes to know which rules are more important to follow.  It also can explain, what class of rules a monk is following.  It is a unique way of looking at Monastic Morality.  It is also important for lay people […]

Throwing Rice at Weddings and Birds

Is it OK to feed uncooked rice to the birds? Recently, the subject about feeding animals in my post Sabbe-Satta-Metta was brought up and how it could end up hurting animals in the long run. I answered it as “hogwash,” and then questioned the validity of the myth of throwing rice at weddings since I see people feed birds with uncooked rice all of the time in Burma. If it killed the birds, we would surely know about it and stop doing it.  C’mon, it’s seed.  Birds eat seeds all of the time. Only a few minutes later, a link to Snopes.com was sent […]

Buddhism and Abortion

What do Theravada Buddhists believe in terms of abortion? Much of what has been written are liberal beliefs and overturning what is written down in the texts. They claim “Modern Buddhism” as a section heading, but there is no such thing as “Modern Buddhism” since there is no such thing as “Modern Kamma.” The rules of kamma do not change over time, and abortion has been around since the time of the Buddha. My job is not to make decisions or advice for others, but to give a “pure” classical Buddhist explanation on abortion. In brief, the Theravada Buddhist texts (and […]

No TV Huh? Part I

I remember when I moved into my new place in Old Greenwich, CT. It was a duplex house and I had the bottom floor. I was within a Frisbee throw into the heart of the charming Old Greenwich village.. (not to be confused with “The Village” of Manhattan). I was also near the train station which would take me to Manhattan if I wanted. I could run to the beach park and back as part of my 4 mile exercise route. It was a nice place, I could afford it, and things were going well as far as lay people […]

Making Helmut Schmidt’s Day

A Story from 1993 from my college days, before the Internet was around. I remember all the way back in ’93, when I was in college and I had just spent a few weeks in China for an academic scholarship. Because I was now some type of “International” student, I was asked to attend a “lunch hour” question and answer session with Helmut Schmitt. Although I had international travel experience, I was hardly experienced in “international issues,” and I did not even know who or what he was. What was a Chancellor anyway? I guess it was some type of […]

lucky draw calc

Lucky-Draw and Devas

  Do you believe in devas? Devas are the Buddhist equivalent to angels. Ok .. Here is the story. I was on alms round two weeks ago and a regular supporter invited us to ask for anything for our studies at school. I needed some pens, so I asked for some pens. He told me to wait and showed up with a huge pen gift-box. He opened it up for me and there was a fat and expensive Cross pen inside. It was probably worth over $100 and there was no way that I would accept it. I refused it […]

Learning to Fly

Below is a Wrigley’s TV commercial from the 80s which started my lifelong dream to hang-glide and a genuine excuse to get educated.  Whenever I saw this commercial as a child, my jaw was to the floor.  It was something I had always wanted to do. Thanks to youtube, I can trace it all back. I was never really college material, I took the SAT’s once and bombed on them. Luckily, there was a trend during that time to ignore the SAT scores because there was some evidence that it discriminated against some people who could perform well at school. […]

Make The Best Meditation Seat: The Samadhi-Sausage

Download Free A4 format PDF Download Free A5 format PDF Tutorial on How to Sit Many times I have given advice to yogis on how to sit properly and I have received raving success. In fact, I asked one fellow student to model for the pictures you will see in this article and he was absolutely amazed at how comfortable he was as soon as he sat down. He spoke loudly with joy and excitement as soon as he was seated in the Samādhi-Sausage, which prompted other people to peek inside the room to see what all of the commotion […]

Kauai Propagation Presentation

A 2 part Powerpoint presentation about what two monks did in Kauai, Hawaii during June to December 2015. The theme was propagation, but the propagation was done just from being monks who do not touch money, and collect their food the traditional Buddhist monk way. The vision, how it got started, stories and experiences were shared.  About 50 people were in the audience.  Running time is about 1 hour total for both.  There is a comment added at the end of part two so make sure you do not quite when it seems like it is over. 2 parts below: […]