Category: Bhāvanā 修行
-
Rediscovering Wholeness: Advanced Sound Meditation with Hemi-Sync
Through sound, we remember. Through practice, we live it. We live in an age of constant distraction.The digital world tugs at our attention with endless notifications, information streams, and demands on our time. It is no wonder so many of us feel scattered, restless, and disconnected—not only from each other, but from ourselves. But what…
-
The Second Council: Ancient Lessons for Today’s Monasteries
What happened in ancient Vesālī still echoes today: the struggle to keep Vinaya pure amidst wealth, comfort, and convenience. The Second Council shows us why renunciation must remain uncompromising if the path is to stay open. 🌿 The Second Council: Ancient Lessons for Today’s Monasteries 🌿 A century after the Buddha’s Parinibbāna, the Saṅgha faced…
-
Awakening Under the Bodhi Tree: Vimutti
The Cosmic Awakening of the Sammāsambuddho On the night beneath the Bodhi tree, Siddhattha Gautama reached the culmination of his quest. Drawing on years of tapas, renunciation, and unwavering discipline, Gautama entered the Four Jhānas. With the penetrating strength of samādhi and the radiance of psychic power, his citta became like a still, radiant flame…
-
Tapas and the Beginning of Virāga: The Buddha’s Path of Fire, Psychic Power, and Purification
by Bhante Mudita Thera “Tapas is not torment — it is life-force communion.” 🔥✨ Tapas: The Forgotten Fire on the Buddha’s Path We often hear that the Buddha’s six years of fasting and austerities were a “mistake” — but was it really? In truth, tapas (self-discipline, austerity) was not failure but fire: The Buddha himself…
-
New Series: Buddhism and the West
Shared Quests for Liberation Beyond Death For too long, we’ve been told that Buddhism and Christianity, East and West, developed in isolation. But what if the truth is deeper — a story of hidden connections, shared lineages, and parallel quests for liberation? In this three-part series, I explore how Early Buddhism resonated with and influenced…
-
Buddhism and Hellenism: Philosophy, Metaphysics, and Liberation
by Bhante Mudita Thera 🌌📜 Buddha and Plato under the same sky? When Alexander reached India, two great worlds touched: Greek philosophy and Indian Buddhism. Both asked the same questions: What is the self? What lies beyond death? How can we live free? In Gandhāra, Buddhist art took on Greek forms — the first human…
-
Abraham and the Brahmanas: Shared Lineages of Gnosis in Early Buddhism and Christianity
By Bhante Mudita Thera 🌍✨ Abraham = A–Brahmana? What if the patriarch Abraham — revered as the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — was not separate from India’s ancient Brahmana seers, but part of the same bloodline and spiritual current? His very name may reveal the link: Together: A–Brahmana — the Respected Brahmana. If…
-
Buddhism and Christianity: The Therapeutae and Proto-Christian Monasticism
by Bhante Mudita Thera 💡🧘 Did you know “therapy” comes from the Therapeutae? The Greek word therapeutae meant “healers” of the divine.” Philo of Alexandria described them as men and women living by Lake Mareotis in Egypt, practicing renunciation, meditation, fasting, and silence — healing not the body, but the soul. Their way of life…
-
Buddhism, Brahmanism, Jainism, and the Śramaṇa Traditions: Conflict or Continuity?
by Bhante Mudita Thera Introduction: Rethinking the Old Story For generations, textbooks and popular works have portrayed the Buddha as a rebel against Brahmanism. We are told that he rejected the Vedic worldview, denied the ātman, and opposed the Brahmanas who monopolized spiritual authority. In this narrative, Buddhism appears as an “anti-Brahmanical” movement, a radical…
-
Śramaṇa as the Ancient Shamanic Tradition: From Immortals to the Buddha’s Path Beyond All Realms
Introduction: Why Rethink Śramaṇas? In most histories of Indian religion, the Śramaṇas are described as a group of wandering ascetics who emerged in northern India around the 6th century BCE, contemporaries of the Buddha. They are often portrayed as a counter-movement to Vedic ritualism, rejecting the authority of the Brahmins and the sacrificial system in…
Gautama Dhamma 