"There is a way of practising mental development (meditation) with regard to all our sensations or feelings, whether happy, unhappy or neutral. Let us take only one example. You experience an unhappy, sorrowful sensation. In this state your mind is cloudy, hazy, not clear, it is depressed. In some cases, you do not even see clearly why you have that unhappy feeling. First of all, you should learn not to be unhappy about your worries. But try to see clearly why  there is a sensation or a feeling of unhappiness, or worry, or sorrow. Try to examine how it arises, its cause, how it disapears, its cessation. Try to examine it as if you are observing it from outside, without any subjective reaction, as a scientist observes some object. Here, too, you should not look at it as 'my feeling' or 'my sensation' subjectively, but only look at it as 'a feeling' or 'a sensation' objectively. You should forget again the false idea of 'I'. When you see its nature, how it arises and disappears, your mind grows dispassionate towards that sensation, and becomes detached and free. It is the same with regard to all sensations or feelings."

What the Buddha taught - p.73

"Nothing in the world is absolute. Everything is conditioned, relative and interdependent. This is the Buddhist theory of relativity.

There can be nothing absolutely free, physical or mental, as everything is interdependent and relative."

What the Buddha taught - p.53-54

"Buddhism stands unique in the history of human thought in denying the existence of such  a soul, self or atman. According to the teaching of the Buddha, the idea of self is an imaginary, false belief which has no corresponding reality, and it produces harmful thoughts of 'me' and 'mine', selfish desire, craving, attachment, hatred, ill-will, conceit, pride, egoism, and other defilements, impurities and problems. It is the source of all the troubles in the world from personal conflicts to wars between nations. In short, to this false view can be traced all the evil in the world.

Two ideas are psicologically deep-rooted in man: self-protection and self-preservation. For self-protection man has created God, on whom he depends for his own protection, safety and security, just as a child depends on its parent. For self-preservation man has conceived the idea of an immortal soul or atman, which will live eternally. In his ignorance, weakness, fear and desire, man needs these two things to console himself."

What the Buddha taught - p.51

"When wisdom is developed and cultivated according to the fourth noble truth, it sees the secret of life, the reality of things as they are. When the secret is discovered, when the truth is seen, all the forces which feverishly produce the continuity of samsara in illusion become calm and incapable of producing any more karma formations, because there is no more illusion, no more thirst for continuity.

He who has realized the truth, Nirvana, is the happiest being in the world. He is free from all complexes and obsessions, the worries and troubles that torment others. His mental health is perfect. He does not repent the past, nor does he brood over the future. He lives fully in the present. Therefore he appreciates and enjoys things in the purest sense without self projections. He is joyfull, exultant, enjoying the pure life, his faculties pleased, free from anxiety, serene and peaceful. As he is free from selfish desire, hatred, ignorance, conceit, pride and all such defilements, he is pure and gentle, full of universal love, compassion, kindness, sympathy, understanding and tolerance. His service to others is of the purest, for he has no thought of self. He gains nothing, accumulates nothing, not even anything spiritual, because he is free from the illusion of self and the thirst for becoming."

What the Buddha taught - p.43

"But what is Nirvana? The only reasonable reply to give to the question is that it can never be answered completely and satisfactorily in words, because human language is too poor to express  the real nature of the absolute truth or ultimate reality which is Nirvana. Language is created  and used by masses of human beings to express things and ideas experienced  by their sense organs and their mind. A supramundane  experience like that of the absolute truth is not such a category. Therefore there cannot be words to express that experience.

Nirvana is generally expressed in negative terms - a less dangerous mode perhaps. So it is often referred to by such negative terms as extinction of thirst, uncompund, unconditioned, absence of desire, cessation, blowing out or extinction.

Referring to Nirvana the Buddha says: O bhikkus, there is the unborn, ungrown and unconditioned. Were there not the unborn, ungrown and unconditioned, there would be no escape for the born, grown and conditioned.

Nirvana is definitely no annihilation of self, because there is no self to annihilate. If at all, it is the annihilation of the illusion, of the false idea of self.

Nirvana is neither cause nor effect. It is beyond cause and effect. Truth is not a result nor an effect. It is not produced like a mystic, spiritual, mental state. Truth is. Nirvana is.

What is there after Nirvana? This question cannot arise, because Nirvana is the ultimate truth. If it is ultimate, there can be nothing after it. If there is anything after Nirvana, then that will be the ultimate truth and not Nirvana.

If there is no self, who realizes Nirvana? It is the thought that thinks, there is no thinker behind the thought. In the same way, it is wisdom, realization, that realizes. There is no other self behind the realization.

Nirvana is beyond logic and reasoning."

What the Buddha taught - p.35-43

"A being is nothing but a combination of  physical and mental forces or energies. What we call death is the total non-functioning of the physical body. Do all these forces and energies stop altogether with the non-functioning  of the body? Buddhism says 'No'. Will, volition, desire, thirst to exist, to continue, to become more and more, is a tremendous force that moves whole lives, whole existences, that even moves the whole world. This is the greatest force, the greatest energy in the world. According to Buddhism, this force does not stop with the non-functioning of the body, which is death; but it continues manifesting itself in another form, producing re-existence which is called rebirth.

When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life.

As there is no permanent, unchanging substance, nothing passes from one moment to the next. So quite obviously, nothing permanent or unchanging can pass or transmigrate from one life to the next. It is a series that continues unbroken, but changes every moment. The series is, really speaking, nothing but movement. It is like a flame that burns through the night: it is not the same flame nor is it another. Similarly, a person who dies here and is reborn elsewhere is neither the same person, nor another.

As long as there is this thirst to be and to become, the cycle of continuity (samsara) goes on. It can stop only when its driving force, this thirst, is cut off through wisdom which sees reality, truth, nirvana."

What the Buddha taught - p.33

"The Pali word kamma or the Sanskrit karma literally means 'action', 'doing'. But in the Buddhist theory of karma it has a specific meaning: it means only volitional action, not all action. Nor does it mean  the result of karma as many people wrongly  and loosely use it. In Buddhist terminology karma never means its effect; its effect is known as the fruit or the result of karma.

The theory of karma should not be confused  with so-called moral justice or reward and punishment. The theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward and punishment. Every volitional action produces its effects or results. If a good action produces good effects and a bad action bad effects, it is not justice, or reward, or punishment meted out by anybody or any power sitting in judgement on your action, but this is in virtue of its own nature, its own law."

What the Buddha taught - p.32

"It is this thirst, desire, greed, craving, manifesting itself in various ways, that gives rise to all forms of suffering and the continuity of beings. But it should not be taken as the first cause, for there is no first cause possible as, according to Buddhism, everything is relative and inter-dependent."

What the Buddha taught - p.29

"A true buddhist is the happiest of beings. He has no fears or anxieties. He is always calm and serene, and cannot be upset or dismayed by changes or calamities, because he sees things as they are.

Although there is suffering in life, a buddhist should not be gloomy over it, should not be angry or impatient at it.

Being impatient or angry at suffering does not remove it."

What the Buddha taught - p.28

"There is no thinker behind the thought. Thought itself is the thinker. If you remove the thought, there is no thinker to be found."

What the Buddha taught - p.26

"The Buddha declared in unequivocal terms that consciousness depends on matter, sensation, perception and mental formations, and that it cannot exist independently of them."

What the Buddha taught - p.25

"Conciousness is a reaction or response which has one of the six faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind) as its basis, and one of the six corresponding external phenomena (visible form, sound, odour, taste, tangible things and mind objects, i.e, an idea or thought) as its object."

What the Buddha taught - p.23

"It is volition that I call Karma. Having willed, one acts through body, speech and mind."

What the Buddha taught - p.22

"Buddhism does not recognize a spirit opposed to matter, as is accepted by most other systems  of philosophies and religions. Mind is only a faculty or organ like the eye or the ear.

The difference between the eye and the mind as faculties is that the former senses the world of colours and visible forms, while the later senses the world of ideas and thougts and mental objects."

What the Buddha taught - p.21

"In Buddhism emphasis is laid on seeing, knowing, understanding, and not on faith or belief."

What the Buddha taught - p.3

"The root of all evil is ignorance and false views."

What the Buddha taught - p.3

"But there’s an alternative way to approach our so-called problems. No matter what we bring to our meditation, no matter how we may be feeling, the practice is to simply sit down, acknowledge what’s going on, and then let it be. What this requires is the basic understanding that our states of mind are not problems to be solved or obstacles to be overcome. Just because something seems off doesn’t mean that something is, in fact, off. Things simply are what they are. It’s primarily our judgments about them—our expectations about how things should be—that cause us endless difficulties.


This practice, in a way, is very simple. But it is also very difficult to do; the mind is not inclined to let things be. It does not want to give up its pictures, its opinions, its ideas of how things should be. It is much more interested in analyzing, blaming, controlling, and, above all, making things “better.” But it’s possible to learn one of the most important secrets of spiritual practice: that we don’t have to be some particular way, nor do we have to feel any special way. When we truly understand this, it’s like letting go of a very heavy burden."


Reflect, without thinking - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review - Winter 2009