The best, most precious gift we can give someone is the gift of non-fear, abhaya. People live in fear of death; they are afraid of losing their selfhood, their identity, of disappearing and becoming nonexistent. So when you offer the kind of teaching, practice, and insight that helps someone touch their ultimate dimension and get free of the fear of being and nonbeing, that is the greatest gift you can offer them.

Thich Nhat Hanh. Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra

#LotusSutra #Buddhism #Dharma #Fearless

I like bodhisattvas but I'm not into Pure Lands as much. I never wanted to go to Heaven either. I'm happy on Earth. I would rather spend time in the woods than in some fancy rich mansion...

It seems that some (not all) faiths are based in a desire to escape Mother Earth... why is that?

I think many humans have a contempt for animals and a hatred of their own bodyminds, which they blame for their own mortality. This leads to a desire to "rise above" the bodymind with ascetic practices...

I'm still thinking about "he is continually living amongst asses, hogs, jackals, and dogs."

I want to hang out with the hogs... 🐷 Sounds like a good time to me...

#MastoDharma #LotusSutra #books #reading #Buddhism #religion

The Art of Dying

As a counter to pricey spiritual seminars, I wanted to promote a concept: the Art of Dying. #Buddhism #Religion #Dharma #LotusSutra

http://nembutsu.cc/2025/10/17/the-art-of-dying/

I read the introduction of the Lotus Sutra in a couple of translations. One was stilted: boring, repetitive, I’m no better than Yamalamawhosyermama because these lists slide right into forget-me land. Another slipped me some cultural context, enough for me to get a fuzzy picture of infinity and all that.

I remembered how I hated Chef and My Fridge the first time I tried to watch an episode. And how I adore it now I have more awareness of Korean popular culture.

#MastoDharma #lotussutra

Reading the Lotus Sutra, it is obvious that Buddhism is a religion with mythology and supernatural ideas like any other. So, I wonder why so many people insist that Buddhism and Daoism are "philosophies, not religions." I was taught this in school and many Western books on Eastern spirituality say the same thing.

I think it is good that Buddhism is adaptable enough to be secularized, but the complete ignorance of the other stuff even existing is crazy. When I was in school I was taught about meditation, but never anything about bodhisattvas or the six realms or things like that. Maybe my teacher had never heard of them.

#MastoDharma #LotusSutra #Buddhism #religion #Taoism #Daoism #SecularBuddhism

The Flexibility of Tendai

As I talked about in a recent post, the main core idea of the venerable Tendai (天台) sect in Japanese Buddhism, including its parent Tiantai sect in China, is that the Lotus Sutra is the most important text in the Buddhist canon, a kind of capstone (lit. "complete teaching", engyō 円教) for the rest of Buddhist literature up to that point. #Buddhism #Japan #Tendai #LotusSutra

http://nembutsu.cc/2025/07/27/the-flexibility-of-tendai/

The Lotus Sutra: the Capstone Teaching?

"Thus, out of all the Buddhist texts, Zhi-yi argued that the Lotus Sutra was the complete and ultimate teaching (円教). The capstone of Buddhism, in other words. In Japanese Tendai Buddhism, 円教 is pronounced as engyō, and so much of Tendai Buddhist practice is about putting the Lotus Sutra teachings into practice." #Buddhism #Tendai #LotusSutra

http://nembutsu.cc/2025/07/24/tendai-the-capstone-teaching/