My favourite book

I finally located and bought my favourite book of all time, the Avatamsaka Sutra, or the Flower Ornament Scripture. The longest Mahayana Buddhist sutra, longer than the Bible, it contains some of the most beautiful religious imagery and narrative in the history of sacred texts. Consider this passage, expounded by a celestial king called Contented:
The [...]

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The 10 Minute Seduction

Does the advice from this Men’s Health column help you? Yes? No? ^_^
Many things run through a woman’s mind when you meet. Here’s how to go from “hello” to “oh my”
By: Denny Watkins
Your Approach
Her brain quickly vets your height and facial symmetry the moment you meet. Now convince her of your character. Approach confidently; don’t [...]

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The Success of a Religion

Tonight after attending a Tibetan Buddhist seminar I realized one thing that I have been wrong about for almost 2 years. I once thought that a quality of a successful religion was its success in the political arena; that for a politically powerful religion like Christianity or a theocratic state like those of the Islamic [...]

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The Problem of Sin and Theodicies

Let me first say that I find the concept of sin in theism quite interesting. I find it, on first glance, a good theological explanation of the terrible state of humanity. We disobeyed God, hence our suffering is brought upon ourselves.
However, there is a fundamental philosophical problem with this theory, and ironically it was the [...]

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What is a successful religion, personally and socially?

For one to live a successful religious life, and for one to be competent enough to impart one’s own spiritual experience to others is the most rewarding thing in life – it is continuous personal learning and self-discovery. Subsequently this self-discovery also is developed alongside discovery of external things, people, ideas, and concepts. The historical [...]

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Robert Thurman on Catholicism

Today I attended a most entertaining and meaningful lecture at the University of Hong Kong by Robert Thurman, one of the most influential American Buddhists of our times. While he was autographing his most recent book, Infinite Life, I asked him about his position on theism, specifically Catholicism. What he had to say was very [...]

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Hectic Life

Today was my fourth and final session of volunteering. Hopefully I will be able to do the same thing sometime next year. Now that it is Wednesday, there’s a whole heap of stuff that needs to be arranged. Laundry is insane; I dislike doing laundry at college. Good thing I’ve been relatively organized despite having [...]

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10 minute introduction to Mahayana Buddhism

Want to know about the bare bones of Mahayana Buddhism but have no time? No scriptures? No problem… the following article was written for the Helium website by me just for fun.
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In the first century BCE, a hundred years before the advent of Christianity, a new movement began to flourish within traditional Buddhism, which was [...]

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The Sins of Religion

The Buddhist faith has watched over this world for 2,550 years. The sons and daughters of the Buddha have seen empires rise and crumble, generations come and go,  nations and peoples prosper and perish. In the last 2000 years, we also have observed, with concern, the rise and decline of the younger Christianity and the [...]

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The Battle being Won

Today is Thursday. Celebrations of the end of the academic year will begin soon at college in earnest at the end of the week. Everyone still has affairs to sort out, but what is really exciting is hearing of everyone’s plans for the holidays, and anticipating with relish what we will do when (secular, originally [...]

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