Sutra Excerpts, The Masters

Know for Yourselves – The Kalama Sutta

This well-known extract from the Kalama Sutta quotes a teaching from the Buddha in which he advises his audience - a group called the Kalamas of Kesaputta - about how to know their own spiritual paths, given the noise of the competing  philosophies and teachers that would frequently present themselves in their communities. Bombarded by… Continue reading Know for Yourselves – The Kalama Sutta

Book Bits, Chinese Texts, The Masters

Chuang Tzu: How To Find What You Already Know?

With great power also comes great responsibility, but not always great wisdom. Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu, whose writings form one of the pillars of Taosim, took a dim view of much of human activity and the accumulation of power and knowledge, recommending instead the cultivation of a kind of wisdom in tune with the Tao,… Continue reading Chuang Tzu: How To Find What You Already Know?

Book Bits

Aldous Huxley on Cleverness and the Perennial Philosophy

Aldous Huxley published The Perennial Philosophy in 1945, just after the end of the Second World War, sending into a divided world a much needed work of unification. His book is grounded in the idea of the 'philosophia perennis', the idea that all religions in the world have in common the human yearning to experience the… Continue reading Aldous Huxley on Cleverness and the Perennial Philosophy