The Editors

If you start with samatha meditation on buddho, or any other meditation object, it may well be that after a short time you notice that it is quite difficult to…

In the West, we live in a time of unparalleled material prosperity, rellative world peace (never before has there been as little war as today), security…

The Buddha taught three characteristics (ti-lakkhaṇa) that apply to all existence in Samsāra, namely impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and non…

The Buddha advised five moral precepts (pañca-sīla) for the development of morality (sīla). The first of these precepts is ‘abstaining from killing’.

When did the use of statues in Buddhism begin? What did the Buddha himself advise on their use? And wat do the various Buddha statues mean? In this text we…

Since the death of the Buddha in present day India in the 5th B.C., Buddhism has spread around the world. It is not surprising that it has changed over time by…

One of the hardest things for meditation practitioners, whether you’re a beginner or quite experienced, is to have the discipline to meditate every day.

One of the keywords in Buddhism is dukkha, often translated as suffering. In everyday life, dukkha is most easily perceived as suffering, and that is why that…

Over the past few months, we have been working hard to expand our digital Theravāda Buddhist library. It contains a handpicked selection of books by renowned…

When the Buddha talks about meditation in the suttas (sutras), he almost always talks about samādhi. The word samādhi has many nuances. The essence of samādhi…

Here you will find answers to the questions we are asked most often. If yours isn’t among them, feel free to get in touch. It is a six-week course with personal…

Achieving the ultimate complete liberation from unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) is a gradual process consisting of four stages. In the time of the Buddha there were…

Guided meditation has become increasingly popular in recent years, mainly through meditation apps, YouTube channels and other (impersonal) online content.

The doctrine of karma (kamma) and rebirth is often misunderstood. You sometimes hear people say rather fatalistically “it’s my karma” or with the desire to give…

The word “retreat” means as much as “withdrawing yourself” and, in a narrower sense in this context, withdrawing yourself from everyday life for spiritual or…

Meditation is not a fast process. It is important to continue to make patient efforts without desiring anything. The Buddha once gave the example (in SN 22.101)…

At home through an app, at your yoga class or at work, mindfulness ‘without Buddhism’ can be found everywhere these days. Usually it is taught as a form of…

The new year is coming and many people are thinking about what they will do differently the coming year. This often results in intentions to refrain from…

Mālā is the Sanskrit word for chain or necklace. Specifically, it refers to the beaded necklace that is often used during meditation. The moment man began to…

If we look at the cause of unsatisfactoriness, the second Noble Truth the Buddha taught, we see that the Buddha mentions desire as the big problem.

The second paragraph in the first chapter of the Abhidhammattha Sangaha by Acariya Anuruddha reads: “In the ultimate sense, the Abhidhamma speaks of four…

When it comes to practicing samatha meditation on buddho, Ahba regularly speaks about the series saddhā, viriya, sati, samādhi, paññā and overarching khanti and…

The word ‘mindfulness’ as an indication for a meditation system found its entry in the west when John Kabat-Zinn started his program of ‘Mindfulness-Based…

In the practice of samatha meditation the mind is focused on a specific object. The Buddha taught 40 such meditation objects. He never said that one object is…

Vipassanā means as much as ‘insight’ and is often translated as insight meditation. Sometimes this is seen as a separate form of Buddhist meditation.

You could argue that Buddhism is about freeing yourself from samsāra and reaching nirvana (nibbāna). But what do samsāra and nibbāna really mean?

The Dhammpada is a true gem of the ancient Buddhist scriptures (the Pali Canon) of Theravada Buddhism and probably one of the oldest Buddhist texts…

Sexual abuse plays a role in an unacceptably high percentage of the member organizations of the Buddhist Union of the Netherlands (BUN).

About 8,000 people now visit our websites (buddho.nl and buddho.org) every month and new people subscribe to our newsletter almost every day…

Every month more than two thousand people visit our website, including many returning visitors. We are touched by the donations and positive reactions we have…

You started meditating, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s a way to relax a bit more, to let go of stress, or to make suffering that you have experienced more…

The Buddha taught with great regularity that concentration (samādhi) is a cornerstone of the path to liberation from suffering. On this path, sooner or later…

In essence Buddhism is all about liberating the mind. To accomplish this, the Buddha taught his path of morality (sīla), concentration (samādhi) and wisdom…

Samatha meditation on buddho is a form of buddhānussati, meditation focused on the qualities of the Buddha. In this method, the meditation object (the object…

If you want to start meditating, you will soon come across meditation apps. But do you really need an app to meditate? And which one is best?

Talking about how to live a good life is easy, actually living it is difficult. Anyone can use terms like “enlightened,” “awakened,” or “liberated…

I am sitting in front of my meditation teacher Ahba, a Burmese Buddhist monk who fled Myanmar in the 1980s. After walking hundreds of kilometers through the…

Words like citta (consciousness) or cetasika (mental factor) can be quite abstract (see also Ultimate Reality and Ethical Quality in the Abhidhamma).

For more than 2,500 years, people have followed the path to liberation as taught by the Buddha. For just as long, the Buddha’s life story has had a powerful…

According to the Mahāyāna-tradition, the Buddha has told the Shūraṅgama Sutta especially for Ananda, who at that time already was a Sotāpanna (a person who…

Nowadays you can take a yoga class in almost every city and there are numerous online channels that make it easy to practice yoga at home.

When we talk about Buddhism, we are talking about the teachings of the Buddha, but the Buddha himself did not write anything down. So, you might wonder: how do…

When practicing samatha meditation, at first it may seem as if the mind is only becoming more restless. This is because you look at your mental processes with…

Anyone who meditates daily, year after year, anyone who regularly does long retreats, knows that a meditation teacher is indispensable.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a reform movement reshaped Thai monastic life. Prince Mongkut — who spent twenty-seven years as a monk before ascending the…

Theravāda Buddhism is a Buddhist school that came to prominence during the reign of king Asoka the Great around 250 BC, after the purification of the Sangha…

When people picture meditation, they picture sitting. Sitting is the heart of the practice, and the deepest work is done there. But it is not all of it.

Two thousand five hundred years ago, underneath the Bodhi tree in northern India, Siddhartha Gautama understood reality and became a Buddha, a ‘awake’ or…

In essence, meditation is focusing your attention on a specific object. Your mind then gradually becomes clean and clear. A clean and clear mind forms the…

Those who like it can study the Abhidhamma as an addition to the meditation. The prefix ‘abhi’ means ‘transcending’ or ‘higher’; in this case the word ‘dhamma’…

The word vipassanā is composed of two parts: vi, which means ‘clear’, and passanā, which means ‘to see’. Vipassanā therefore means ‘to see clearly’ or rather…