The Empty Nature of All Things

(Buddhism Podcast) The empty nature of all things: Buddhist philosophy on reality

The Suñña Sutta [15] ("Discourse on Emptiness"), part of the Pāli canon, relates that the monk Ānanda, the Buddha's attendant, asked:

"Venerable sir, it is said that the world is 'empty,' the world is empty. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?"

The Buddha replied, "In so far as it is empty of a self or of anything that belongs to a self. So it is said, Ānanda, that the world is empty." More

Christians: These other religions are false

Nice Jesus the Anointed One, the Christ (Kristos) loves a prosperity gospel in his name?

Why Christians say these 10 religions are false

Is this fool's gold? It looks so shiny and pure.

For millions of faithful followers calling themselves "true Christians," truth isn’t a spectrum but a line drawn by scripture, and these ten belief systems cross it in ways they say matter eternally. [Should other religions be banned when Trump is installed as True Leader before Christmas 2026?]

Religion is often a hot topic at dinner tables across the country, especially when beliefs clash over who holds the ultimate truth about life and the afterlife.

Hey, you Goddamned sinners, send me $$!

For many Christians, their Bible serves as the final rulebook, the final truth, and any belief or faith that deviates in the slightest from [their translation and interpretation of] its core teachings is frequently viewed as missing the mark ("sinful").

This perspective stems from a deep belief and conviction that spiritual truth is not subjective but a narrow path defined by specific scriptures, some of which are apocryphal or not really found written anywhere, like the details of the "Rapture" to come.

While modern human society often encourages a flexible approach to spirituality, orthodox Christianity draws hard lines in stone regarding the nature of God and what counts as "salvation." Everyone else is wrong.

This often leads to strong disagreements over the validity of other faith systems (and often bigger fights within a single system, sect, or Christian denomination, some of which have no right to even call themselves "Christian"), from ancient traditions to newer spiritual movements.

Here is a look at ten belief systems that Christians often reject, along with the theological reasons they push back against them....

1. Mormons and Latter-Day Saints
2. Islam and the Prophet Mohammed [PBUH]
3. Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watchtower
4. Scientology and Thetans [but genocidal Ziontology is okay]
5. Hinduism and the many gods [here's looking at you, Usha]
6. Buddhism and the Path to Nirvana
7. Wicca and Modern Paganism
8. New Age Spirituality
9. Unitarian Universalism
10. Atheism and Secular Humanism.

Coming in at Number 6, Buddhism and the Path to Nirvana: While Christians often respect the ethical discipline of Buddhism, they reject its central non-theistic stance (which many take as atheistic).

Buddhism does not acknowledge an ultimate Creator God (like Maha Brahma, the "Great Supremo" who imagines himself the Creator of all things), which is the very foundation of the Christian worldview

• [with their Demiurge Yaldabaoth the vengeful Judge Yahweh/Jehovah of the Old Testament, even if Jesus spoke out against this impostor in the name of the True God of Light that stands behind everything, a kind of Brahman figure behind the illusion of Maya, if one only took Gnostic texts into consideration as was the case before the official Church banned and burned any such gospels and teachings by Jesus].

The Buddha taught the Path to Nirvana

The ultimate goal of Nirvana (the "Deathless," "freedom from all suffering and further rebirth"), which is the cessation of craving and cycling and wandering through the illusory and miserable Wheel of Life and Death (Samsara), is viewed as a hopeless end compared to the Christian promise of eternal life.

Christians also disagree with the idea that suffering is something to escape solely through human effort and mental cleansing. They believe that suffering has purpose and that God is present with believers through their torments, trials, and tribulations. [Smile, the Christian God wants you to suffer.]

A study by Arizona Christian University found that only 4% of American adults hold a biblical worldview, which might help to explain why Eastern philosophies (such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Sufism to some extent) are gaining traction over traditional church teachings.

• [Adding an "-ism" to any word or doctrine is a good way to discredit it right off the bat, at least in the imperial Christ-ism/ propaganda we are fed in the West.]
• MSN (Why Christians say these 10 religions are false) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Science discovers the meaning of life

All life comes down to matter, says Materialism

A Mystery as Old as Humanity: For centuries, we’ve asked the same impossible question: What is life—and what gives it meaning? Now, scientists think they’re closer than ever to answering it. But their explanation isn’t philosophical or spiritual—it’s something far more concrete, hidden deep within the structure of matter itself.

• What if Buddhism's fundamental unit of materiality in this universe, the rupa kalapa, or "form particle," explains the "meaning of life"? What if all we are is just material, arising in the cosmos, turning, and passing away into nothingness, having emerged from there in the first place?
• Preposterous. The Buddha rejected this wrong view (miccha-ditthi) in very strong terms. It leads to a very pernicious view that denies a great deal about our lives. There are two extreme views the Buddha rejected and avoided; they are the annihilationist view on the one hand and the eternalist view on the other. Instead, he taught Dependent Origination as an explanation for all things.
• The idea that we (the self, soul, ego, personality, living being) are only material in nature is flawed and leads to the annihilationist wrong view that says that when we die, everything stops. There is no further becoming. Karma has no force to produce further becoming, rebirth, rearising in another state, manifesting the results of previous deeds.
• There is a similar extreme on the other end, that of the eternalists who proclaim that the self/soul (atta or atman) continues in essence unchanged forever, individuated, fated to receive the result of all previous deeds (karma). This, too, is a wrong view.
• How could they both be wrong? Wouldn't one being wrong necessitate the other being right? No. Both views are at odds with reality, and enlightenment (bodhi) is knowing-and-seeing things as they truly are thereby being liberated from the endless Round of Rebirth (samsara).
• What does the Middle Way say is the case? One must first understand that "middle" does not mean a compromise between both views, a mean or average of the two. Indeed, what we are or at least what we identify with, has a material component, but there is also a psychological component. This is nama-rupa, "name and form." This can be said of all things, not just us.
• More importantly, what is "us"? What are "we"? What is the self or soul or the being? The Buddha said when people speak of self, they are referring to the Five Aggregates clung to as self. These are form; feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness(es).
• What, ultimately speaking, is "form" (rupa)? Science does not know, but well-instructed mystics (noble ones, knowers, seers, those endowed with the divine eye or dibba cakkhu) know. They do not know it by rote. Anyone can come to know that. They know it by direct perception. They are well instructed not to memorize a list but rather to engage in a practice (Satipatthana) to directly see, penetrate, and understand what is there in material form. Unfortunately, what is there is described in ancient and archaic terms. When modern people hear these words, they -- thinking they know what they mean -- dismiss them out of hand.
• Those who listen, who give ear and attention to comprehend what the Buddha meant by these ancient terms is then instruction on the PRACTICE to be able to see them directly. See what? The Four Elements. We "know" there aren't four elements. There are many more. This is not what "elements" (dhatu) means in Buddhism. The elements are not, roughly speaking, material. They are qualities, characteristics, descriptions of matter. Those many descriptions are put into four categories, and these categories are the "elements."
• The PRACTICE of Four Elements Meditation is the way to know-and-see them. This is not science to SHOW others. This is Buddhist psychology (Abhidhamma) to see for oneself. For it is only by knowing-and-seeing for ourselves that we can become free. No one has ever gained freedom, enlightenment, spiritual liberation simply by reading -- just as no one has ever learned physics by flipping to the back pages of a text for the answers to equations. The answers are back there so that, after doing the PRACTICE of calculating, we can see if our results comport and accord with what others have confirmed are the answers. It is essential to come see for oneself. That is the Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga), the Path of Purification (Vissudhimagga).

Source: Scientists think they’ve finally found the meaning of life (MSN)

How long is 'NOW'? Intro to Metaphysics

How Long is Now? | Intro to Metaphysics 🪐

Suck it up, Devi Cup.

(exurb1a) Help Ex do this full-time if deranged enough (and thanks kindly) ► exurb1r. Anxiety anecdote: This one took about two months to make. A lot of that time was faffing around with a Word document. Not even sure what the point of the script was, but anyhow -- today, very excited to be finally uploading and being rid of the thing.

There I was doing a bit of last-minute polishing in the video editor and suddenly I notice I've deleted half the video in the timeline. Just gone. I reload the old save file, but it's too late. I've written over it already.

I am a cat lady.

About a month of work gone in three seconds of mis-clicking. I'm not sure how far back in the day I made the mistake, and did I mention that the file is so large now that the undo function locks the video editor up almost every time? There's only one option left: tentatively keep hitting undo and just pray this doesn't lock the editor up otherwise ALL GONE. And just pray the buffer remembers far back enough to restore the sequence I deleted otherwise ALL GONE. There I sat for 30 minutes hitting Ctrl-Z as gently as I could, sweat dripping from my furrowed brow.

Even the mice who live in the walls of my apartment were coming out to watch and bite their fingernails or claws or whatever it is mice have, their cheese untouched, their traps empty... Anyway, everything was fine even if I almost soiled myself. The undo function worked, and I briefly felt good about living again for the first time in ten years. I am an idiot. Please don't be an idiot like me. Back stuff up, I beg ye.

Music used ► Queen of the Night - Patrick Hawes, Grace Davidson Swan Lake, Act II - Tchaikovsky - • Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (Act II, No. 10) Lavender Fields - Aysedeniz Gokcin Dawn of Innocence - Nathalie Bonin. And of course here's your mystery link: • Scavengers Reign S01E03 - Pollination...

New book of depressing poems: inyurl.com/27fdfh63 (may need to change your region). Other stuff: Books what I wrote, yo ► amazon.com/Exurb1a... For sending personalized insults ► exurb1a T-shirts, mugs, and sadness ► teespring.com/stores/exurb1a. I also make horrendous music ► exurbia-1.

• 10 Astounding Meditation Practices That Helped Me Achieve Inner Peace
• 20 Unique Meditation Practices from Around the World
• Ancient humans lived nearly 1 mile within this cave in Europe
• 12 Facts About Redheads You Never Knew
• Top 40 Actresses of All Time
• Waterfall discovery changes what we believed about evolution
• 12 signs of a highly unintelligent person, according to science
• Landmark discovery: Giant fossil pre-dating dinosaurs found
• Exurb1a, Dec. 5, 2023; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Brahman, Self, Atman, Shiva: India's seers

Yogananda Fest 2025: What happened?

WHAT HAPPENED?

YoganandaFest.com featured activities

It rained in Los Angeles on Saturday morning, as it has 5 out of the 6 years this fest has existed. So most diehard yogis were undeterred. While it remained cold, cloudy, and drizzly with showers in some parts of the megalopolis that is LA County, which stretches for over 50 miles across as a basin, the sun came out over Torrance, the city (one of 88) hosting the festival.

Lovin schismatic disciple Kriyananda

Yogananda was a great Indian guru who is bigger than the organization that claims to be his exclusive promoter, the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). There is a better albeit smaller organization that promotes the real guru, baby and all.

(Could the great Hindu-Christian syncretic-saint have had a baby with one of his American female disciples?) The Ananda Church of Self-Realization (Donate | Yogananda Fest) is a kind of schism that arose among Paramhansa Yogananda's followers.

Autobiography of a Yogi: The
Original 1946 Edition plus

One original disciple, Kriyananda, was a purist. He decided to publish the founder's autobiography in its ORIGINAL (unredacted, unabridged) form. It's better that way to read it, but SRF doesn't like it.

The larger, less orthodox SRF organization made changes to the classic book and will not settle a lawsuit that says the rightful owner of the religious organization is Yogananda's unacknowledged son. There's DNA evidence to back up Ananda's claim, but SRF will not acknowledge, as to do so would mean the loss of their ability to legally claim ownership of the book, its proceeds, the properties spread across LA and elsewhere, and the legacy of the great master. What to do? What to do? More lawyers are needed to settle the issue. Or the son should become a guru, claim his lineage, and speak out publicly rather than behind the Ananda organization. Until then, there are TWO versions of the book. Which have most people read?

After about 9:00 am, with clear skies and lots of enthusiastic participants from the Holy City of Lost Angels, events went on as planned: meditation, Kriya Yoga, Hatha Yoga, inspiring featured speakers and more.

• Also participating: Glendale's Ashwin Clinic-College of Ayurveda Yoga & Vedic Sciences – Ashwin Ayurveda – Love in all we do – since 1901
• Kriya Meditation Ayurveda Yoga Vedic Sciences Clinic/College | Meetup
• 4:30 pm Soundbath and Prana Lifeforce Healing, Sat, May 3, 2025, 4:30 PM | Meetup
• Dharma Buddhist Meditation (Disclosure Project, Los Angeles) Events

Event details

I paved the way for PY in 1893.

Yogananda Fest (YoganandaFest.com – 2025 | Paramhansa Yogananda's Keys for Peace and Happiness) is an annual Kriya and Hatha Yoga, meditation, and spiritual-living festival. Join in an all-day program celebrating and sharing the teachings of the great American missionary and Indian yogi Paramhansa Yogananda.

Indian gurus in the USA?

Swami Paramananda, 1923

[After the arrival of Swami Vivekananda in the United States for the Chicago Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893, visiting Pasadena and declaring it the "Varanasi (Buddhist Kashi and Benares) of America," both set up ashrams here, Swami in South Pasadena and Yogananda in neighboring Mt. Washington, a prominent hill above the next town over, Highland Park, with a magnificent view of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline.

Paramahansa Yogananda, 1920

That mansion became Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship's Mother Center (older than the magnificent Lake Shrine in Malibu, currently closed due to the Palisades Fire), after the organization's founding in 1920, along with a big temple in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. (next to an old hospital purchased by Scientology and made into big cult offices), whereas Vivekananda's Victorian style house is a small and easily missed blip on Figueroa Street. Not far from there, a devotee of Sri Anandamayi Ma named Swami Paramananda founded the beautiful and rustic monastery in Glendale/La Crescenta called Ananda Ashram (Ananda Ashrama, spiritual center for Vedanta) in 1923.

Hinduism in America: Converge

So Yogananda is a sort of latecomer but by far the most successful of Indian gurus in America, outshining even the Beatles' cultish Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder and promoter of Transcendental Meditation (TM), which was a fad from the 1960s though still some people swear by it, like a young Jeff Goldblum in his cameo in Annie Hall.

Why does any of this matter? Not only did Hinduism come to America, Buddhism came along as well (many centuries earlier, even before Columbus and Christianity, according to Rick Fields, Edward P. Vining, and other American historians), making an incredible splash that still reverberates and sends out rings of influence. Books have been written about it.]

• Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Contexts
• Hannah: The Untold Story of Buddhism
• Meditating at the Glendale Temple, Los Angeles
• Sri Aurobindo, founder of Integral Yoga
• Bikram Yoga's Choudhury, Dick Nixon's trainer
• Hare Krishna Movement (ISKCON)
• Sri Anandamayi Ma: The Divine Mother
• Top 10 Spiritual Gurus of India

West Coast used to have some parties that made LA the antithesis of NYC

• Yogananda Fest – 2025, YouTube.com; Siri, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Bhikkhu Bodhi, what is NIRVANA?

Bhikkhu Bodhi's surprising and profound description of nirvana (nibbana)

(Daniel Aitken) In this profound Dharma Chat, renowned American Theravada Buddhist monk, scholar, and translator Bhikkhu Bodhi sheds light on the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path: nirvana (nibbana). Join him as he navigates the intricacies of this elusive concept in three ways, unveiling its multifaceted nature and dispelling common foolish misconceptions about this reality. Watch the full episode at dharmachats.com.

Nirvana (the Unformed)

Arhats in nirvana are not in nothingness

The beautiful thing about this short answer is that it is what Bhikkhu Bodhi was saying decades ago in his landmark series As It Is, ten taped lectures. The "Nibbana" lecture (Number 6) goes into detail to show that nirvana is NOT nothingness as so many people have concluded. It is not "emptiness." It is not negative, though described by excluding what it is not, which makes it sound like exactly that. Anyone wishing to intellectually grasp nirvana, because direct realization of it (which is the best way of understanding it) is a little way off, will enjoy this talk:

Nirvana (the Deathless)

Nibbana (Nirvana) lecture by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Dhamma, Buddhism

• Bhikkhu Bodhi, Daniel Aitken, Dec. 28, 2023; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

How to fully live now (Alan Watts)

• The Grass Roots – "Let's Live for Today" (Genius Lyrics)

How to be fully alive now - Alan Watts

(After Skool) Jan. 7, 2025: In this animation, Alan Watts explains how most of us are failing to experience the reality of life for what it really is. We get so caught up in language, ego, time, money, "problems," and distractions that we miss the beauty of the present moment -- the eternal Now. It's an inspirational and profound speech on the real and tangible here and now. What were we previously thinking, carrying on and going about on autopilot?

WARNING: This is NOT a test run. This is your real life. Live.

Original audio sourced from: “Alan Watts - Limits of Language-2." ► Follow the Alan Watts Organization: Speech courtesy of alanwatts.org. Instagram: alanwattsorg. Facebook: alanwattsauthor. YouTube: @alanwattsorg

Is there a Self or not? (sutra)

Is There a Self or Not?

The Wanderer Vacchagotta went to visit the Exalted One (the Buddha) and said:

"Master Gotama, is there a self?" At these words the Exalted One was silent.

"Then, Master Gotama, is there not a self?" Again the Exalted One was silent.

Then the Wanderer Vacchagotta rose from his seat and went away.

Not long after his departure, Venerable Ananda said to the Exalted One:

"How is it, venerable sir, that the Exalted One gave no answer to the question of the Wanderer Vacchagotta?"

"If, Ananda, when asked by the wanderer, 'Is there a self?,' I had replied to him: 'There is a self,' then, Ananda, that would be siding with the recluses and Brahmins who are Eternalists.

"But if, Ananda, when asked, 'Is there not a self?' I had replied that self does not exist, that, Ananda, would be siding with those recluses and Brahmins who are Annihilationists.

"Again, Ananda, when asked by the wanderer, 'Is there a self?,' had I replied that there is, would my reply be in accordance with the knowledge that all things are impermanent?"

"Surely not, venerable sir."

"Again, Ananda, when asked by the Wanderer Vacchagotta, 'Is there a self?,' had I replied that there were not, it would have been more bewilderment for the already bewildered Vacchagotta.

"He would have said, 'Formerly, indeed, I had a self, but now I have not one anymore.'"

Anatta according to Theravada Buddhism

Anatta is the third of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence (ti-lakkhana) or general characteristics (samanna-lakkhana). Like the teaching of the Four Enlightening Truths, it is the "teaching unique to Buddhas" (buddhanam samukkamsika desana, M. 56/vol. i. 380).

The most usual English rendering, which will be employed here, is "not-self" (or "not self"), though the words "soulless," "egoless," and "impersonal" are often used. (The rendering "Self" with a capital is not justified owing to the absence of capitals in Indian alphabets). More

• Ven. Ñanamoli Thera, The Three Basic Facts of Existence: III. Egolessness (Anatta) (SN 44.10); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Sacred Mushrooms: Secrets of the Goddess

.

Mushrooms of the Goddess: Secrets of Eleusis

Persephone and Demeter, mother-daughter goddesses of ancient Greece. 

Sacred [Magic] Mushrooms

Author Carl A. P. Ruck has 4.4 out of 5 stars with 30 ratings. In the ancient world, men and women joined cults known as Mysteries to unite with the deities of the otherworld and achieve "eternal [or at least ionic] life."

The most important of the Mysteries existed for two millennia at the village of Eleusis. Its deities were Demeter and Persephone, interchangeable in their roles as mother and daughter.

• 

  What does the Goddess ask of us?

  Eleusinian Mysteries: secret drug initiations

The initiations and other rituals of this goddess-based cult were a profound secret: divulging information was punishable by death.

For centuries, scholars have probed the secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries and kykeon, its sacramental Eucharist -- a sacred drink containing psychoactive chemicals similar to those in LSD.

Christianity cult (J.M. Allegro)

Their discoveries have been buried in the arcane language of alchemy, the occult sciences, and secret societies.

Here, in prose accessible to all readers, Ruck unravels the Mysteries, revealing the awesome powers of the goddesses, as well as the pagan underpinnings of Western culture.

• Read sample: Sacred Mushrooms: Secrets of Eleusis (with preface by Huston Smith)
• The amazing ancient cities that all history lovers MUST visit

Self, No-Self, or Dependent Origination?

O Buddha, please explain just two things to me, not-self and Dependent Origination! Al E.

But, Buddha, if there is no self, what is there? - There is Dependent Origination.

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Self or no-self? How could it be?

At all times many delusions (wrong views) have influenced and are still influencing living beings.

They are quoted in the sutras. Among them, however, the one wrong view that everywhere at all times has most misled and deluded beings is personality-view, namely, the ego-illusion (atta-ditthi).

It is of two kinds, either manifesting as "eternalism" or "annihilationism."

On the one hand, the view or belief that one is eternal (sassata-ditthi) is that a soul, ego-entity, or personality exists and persists independent of the physical-and-mental processes that constitute a life and continue after death in an endless series of linked rebirths.

On the other hand, the view or belief that someone or something more or less identical with those physical-and-mental processes, a soul, self, ego-entity, personality is annihilated (uccheda-ditthi) at death.

Dissolution at death is neither means that one survives death nor that one is annihilated at death. (Then what happens? What is dependently originated continues to be -- marked by the Three Universal Characteristics of All States of Existence -- with elements that are radically impermanent, disappointing (unsatisfactory), and impersonal.

An impersonal (empty, suññatā) process continues to roll on and relink to yet another rebirth unless it has previously been brought to rest by awakening (bodhi).

For the 20 kinds of personality-belief, see sakkāya-ditthi. More at "view" ditthi.

What is Dependent Origination?

Abhidhamma (Leigh Brasington)

Paticca-samuppāda (conditioned co-genesis, conditioned co-arising, the composite and empty nature of things) is the doctrine of the conditionality of all physical and mental phenomena.

This uniquely Buddhist Teaching (Dharma), together with the doctrine of not-self (anattā), which is that all things are impersonal, forms the indispensable condition for any real understanding and realization of the Teaching of the Buddha.

• What does the Buddha teach? Only two things, suffering (dukkha, disappointment) and the end of all suffering (nirvana). Enlightenment (bodhi) is awakening to the liberating truth. How? By learning the cause (found within the Four Noble Truths, where "noble" means aryan or "enlightening"), the solution, the Enlightening Eightfold Path, is practiced full realization here and now in this very life.

What did the Buddha teach for awakening?

It points out the conditional or dependent nature of the uninterrupted flux of manifold physical and mental phenomena of existence conventionally called the self, soul, ego, or personality.

On the one hand, the anattā doctrine (that self and all other things are impersonal) proceeds analytically. It splits (analyzes) existence into its ultimate constituent parts -- mere empty, insubstantial phenomena or elements.

On the other hand, the doctrine of Dependent Origination proceeds synthetically. It shows that all phenomena are conditionally related with each other.

In fact, the entire collection of the Dharma in Ultimate [rather than conventional] Terms (Abhidhamma Pitaka), as a whole, is nothing but a treatment of just these two doctrines, phenomenality implying the impersonal and conditional nature of all existence.

The former or analytical method is applied in the Dhammasangani, the first book of the Abhidhamma collection; the latter or synthetical method, in Patthāna, the last book of the Abhidhamma collection. For a synopsis of these two works, see Guide I and VII. More

• Guide: Guide Through the Abhidhamma Pitaka (3rd ed., 1971), by Ven. Nyanatiloka (Buddhist Publication Society)
• Venerable Nyanatiloka Mahathera (German born Anton Walther Florus Gueth), Buddhist Dictionary; edited and clarified by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly