Arahants, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas

Feb 19, 2012 | Articles

I. Competing Buddhist Ideals The arahant ideal and the bodhisattva ideal are often considered the respective guiding ideals of Theravāda Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism. This assumption is not entirely correct, for the Theravāda tradition has absorbed the bodhisattva...

Making a Fresh Start in Life

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

A talk given at the Chinese New Year assembly at Bodhi Monastery, February 9th, 2008 For Buddhists, the new year should not be an occasion merely to celebrate and enjoy good food and the company of friends. It is an opportunity to take a new birth and start a new...

My First Encounter with a Buddhist Monk

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

In the first week of August, 1965, after finishing summer school, I set out to travel by car from New York to California. I was twenty years old and in September would be entering my senior year at Brooklyn College . I wanted to visit a friend who was spending the...

Finding a Place From Which to Start

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

When one sets out to choose a religion, how does one make the right choice? Different religions offer us such different perspectives on the nature of human life, and such different paths of practice, that it is impossible to find a unifying scheme capable of...

How to Become a Powerful Person

Aug 4, 2008 | Articles

It is not through arsenals stacked with lethal weapons Nor by battalions of lightning-swift troops That we can vanquish the forces of darkness And open the gates to freedom for the world. The source of true power lies not in domination By the brute force of armies or...