Daily Buddhism

Zen Part three: Zazen

As I mentioned yesterday, Zen is very individual and is unique to each practitioner. Of all the forms of Buddhism, this is the one where it is most import to know yourself. How do you get to ‚Äúknow yourself?‚Äù For students of Zen, it’s done primarily through a . . . → Read More: Zen, Part three

Now we start on the form of Buddhism with which I am most familiar, Zen.

The teachings of the Buddha have been handed down from teacher to student. Zen is a lineage tradition; a master has a student who follows him for years, observing and learning at the Master’s feet. There is a one-to-one transmission . . . → Read More: Zen, Part one

Tibetan Buddhism

We talked about Tibetan Buddhism a little bit a few weeks ago, so if you don’t remember, go back to http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/19 (Podcast Episode 4: Tibet) for a quick review. I am not going to explain the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan occupation again today, but these concepts are very important to . . . → Read More: Denominations of Buddhism: Tibetan

Tantric Buddhism / Vajrayana

I’ll be honest here; I don’t know that much about this group. Most of the material in this section is taken from Wikipedia. It’s a lot more ‚Äúmystic‚Äù than most of the other groups, and I have no real experience with it.

Tantric Buddhism is also know as . . . → Read More: Denominations of Buddhism: Vajrayana / Tantric

Pure Land

Before we get into the belief of Pure Land Buddhism, we need to introduce a new character. Amida Buddha (also called Amitabha) was a monk who attained enlightenment. This is probably a good time to point out that every time you see the word Buddha, we are NOT necessarily talking about the . . . → Read More: Denominations of Buddhism: Pure Land

“Denominations” of Buddhism: Theravada & Mahayana

Theravada Buddhism is the oldest form of Buddhism, and is probably the closest to the core teachings of the original Buddha. Most of the other schools have added significant new elements to Buddhism, but Theravada is as close to “plain vanilla” Buddhism as possible.

Theravada Buddhism explains that . . . → Read More: Denominations of Buddhism: Theravada & Mahayana

Buddha Jokes, Round One

As I said, just some fun for the rest of the week. Next week, we’ll get into some more of the serious stuff. Buddhists know not to take life too seriously, and to realize the importance of a good laugh.

I don’t know if these are going to give you a good laugh, . . . → Read More: Buddha Jokes, Round One