The 8 things that control our lives without us noticing | The Eight Worldly Conditions
(Buddha's Wisdom) AI. Aug. 27, 2026:
🔍 THE EIGHT WORLDLY CONDITIONS SHAPING OUR LIVES — EVEN WHEN EVERYTHING IS GOING WELL. More than 2,600 years ago, the historical Buddha described Eight Worldly Conditions or Winds that continually affect human life:
(1) gain and (2) loss
(3) praise and (4) blame
(5) pleasure and (6) pain
(7) status and (8) disgrace.
I'm not bored or lonely. And I'm not a monkey!
Known today as the Eight Worldly Winds, this Buddhist teaching reveals why success, approval, comfort, criticism, disappointment, and reputation can move the mind/heart far more than we realize.
The surprising part? Buddhism doesn’t only warn us about loss, pain, blame, and disgrace. Gain, praise, pleasure, and status can consume us, too.
DISCOVER
Why the Eight Worldly Conditions always appear as four opposing pairs
Why the discourse says the pleasant four consume an untrained mind exactly as the painful four do
What the Buddha actually taught about gain and loss, praise and blame, pleasure and pain, status and disgrace
Why the conditions we want can control us as powerfully as the ones we resist
How a famous psychology experiment about sitting alone with your thoughts became widely misunderstood
Why Buddhism sees freedom not as escaping life’s ups and downs, but as understanding their impermanent nature
Thanissaro Bhikkhu's translation of AN 8.6, which renders the three marks of each condition as inconstant, stressful, subject to change https://amzn.to/4xpbP6g
Thanissaro Bhikkhu on yasa, translated here as "status" rather than "fame"
Wilson, T. D. et al. (2014), "Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind," Science, Vol. 345
Sun Wukong appears as a story from Journey to the West, referenced as literature rather than as doctrine
Fox, K. C. R., Thompson, E., Andrews-Hanna, J. R. & Christoff, K. (2014), Is thinking really aversive? The authors challenged the popular interpretation of the experiment, noting that many participants who used the shock described curiosity as a motivation.
⚖️ FAIR USE DISCLAIMER: This video references The Social Network (2010, Columbia Pictures) for commentary, criticism, and educational analysis under Section 107 of the US Copyright Act. All rights to the film remain with the copyright holders. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.
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THERAVADABuddhism: Is this what the historical Buddha (Prince Siddhattha Gotama, "the Sage of the Sakas," the Shakyas, the Indo-Scythians) really taught? The Three Baskets (Ti-pitaka) of Suttas, Vinaya, and Abhidhamma (Discourses, Discipline, and Higher Doctrine). The Buddha did not speak Sanskrit, the exclusive liturgical language of Brahmin priests, but rather Magadhi (colloquial Pali, the lingua franca) and Prakrit. He certainly knew and understood Sanskrit, having been expert in it in past lives, a knower of the Three Vedas. The Pali canon is a collection of canonical texts preserved in the ancient Pali language the Buddha likely spoke.
The only reason Mahayana uses Sanskrit is because Brahmin (Brahminical Vedic Hindus) used it to whitewash Mahayana Buddhism into a kind of comprehensible form of Hinduism. The goal of Theravada, the "Teaching of the direct Elder enlightened disciples of the historical Buddha," is enlightenment here and now as soon as possible, whereas the goal of Mahayana is enlightenment never, only after an inexhaustible supply of living beings first attain it. When will that be? It will never be, alleviating the need for any Mahayana Buddhist to actually practice and bring what the Buddha taught about in one's own life. Imagining themselves supremely awakened buddhas of the future, there's never a need to do it now, the only time we actually ever have.
(The East Made Simple) Every major school (sect, tradition, yana or "vehicle") of Buddhism explained: What each one actually believes, teaches, and attempts to practice. The division is usually Theravada (10%) keeping as close as possible to the teachings of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, Shakyamuni) versus all the others aligning with later interpretations, changes, watering down the message or changing it altogether to build a grand boat that calls itself the "Great Vehicle" or Mahayana (90%). But Vajrayana, a Himalayan (Bhutanese, Nepalese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Russian) school of Esoteric Buddhism, combining many occult Hindu practices (tantra, mantra, yoga, etc.) may also be distinguished or Japanese Zen (a combination of Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Buddhism, but Japan prefers faith-based universalism, Nichiren Shōshū, like most of the rest of the world to pray and receive help from another-power to do all the heavy lifting to deliverance) even though all three are considered Mahayana sects.
Two things are true. 1. There is no self. In other words, all things are marked by the characteristic of being impersonal ("empty"). 2. Whatever arises arises dependent on causes and conditions, which is known as Dependent Origination.
Only by comprehending both will someone avoid confusion and an apparent paradox. Of course, there are two "truths," the conventional everyday truth (honesty) and the ultimate truth (reality). That there is, ultimately speaking, no ongoing persisting surviving transmigrating self is of the latter variety.
How could that possibly be true if all that we have is ourselves and our experiences, our conscious awareness and this body?
It is completely counterintuitive, but it can be known-and-seen directly, which results in enlightenment (awakening) if penetrated as it really is. Before that, it can be comprehended intellectually.
This is a very advanced teaching for dedicated meditators and monastics, not easily understood by them until they develop direct insight into the Truth. Therefore, how is any ordinary, uninstructed person ever to figure it out? They will not. But anyone can receive intellectual instruction to understand it without being liberated by the Truth. For liberation, practice of direct-seeing and insight (vipassana) into the true nature of existence is necessary:
Not-self (anatta) is the central doctrine in Buddhism, without understanding which a real knowledge of Buddhism is altogether impossible.
This uniquely Buddhist anattā doctrine teaches that there is neither within the body or mind -- the bodily or mental phenomena of existence -- nor outside of them can there be found anything that in the ultimate sense could be regarded as a "self" (a real self-existing ego-entity, soul, or any other abiding substance.
This is the pivotal central doctrine of Buddhism, that which without comprehending, no real understanding of Buddhism (i.e., the historical Buddha's Dharma) is possible.
This strange doctrine is the only really specific Buddhist teaching, with which the entire structure of the Buddha Dharma stands or falls.
All other Buddhist doctrines might, more or less, be found in other philosophical systems or religions, but the anattā-doctrine (that ultimately ALL things are impersonal) has been clearly and unreservedly taught only by a buddha, which is why the Buddha was known in his day as the Anattā-vādi or "Teacher that all is Impersonal."
Whoever has not yet penetrated the impersonal nature of all existence, who does not comprehend that in reality there exists only this continually self-consuming process of arising and passing bodily and mental phenomena (called the Five AggregatesCLUNG to as self), and that there is no separate soul, self, or ego-entity within or without this impersonal process, such a person will not be able to understand Buddhism, that is, the teaching of the Four Ennobling Truths (sacca) the fourth of which is the Ennobling Eightfold Path, in the correct light.
One will necessarily assume (wrongly think)
that it is one's self, soul (atta, atman), ego, or personality that chooses and performs skillful and unskillful karma (intentional actions),
that experiences suffering, neutral feelings, and happiness as a result (phala, vipaka, the fruition and resultants of previous actions),
that will be reborn according to that karma (those former deeds),
that will enter or fail to enter nirvana (nibbāna, the quenching and cooling of the threefold fire of greed, hatred/fear, and delusion),
that walks or fails to walk the Eightfold Path to awakening.
"Mere suffering exists, no 'sufferer' is to be found;
Deeds are, but no 'doer' of deeds is really there;
Nirvana is, but not any 'person' who 'enters' it;
The Path is but no 'traveler' on it is to be seen."
"Whoever is unclear with regard to conditionally arisen phenomena and fails to comprehend that ALL actions are conditioned through ignorance and so on [through the 12 causal links of Dependent Origination], that person [necessarily assumes] thinks that it is one's soul, self, ego, or personality that understands or fails to understand, that acts or causes to act, that comes to existence at rebirth and passes out of existence at death...that has sense-impressions, feels, desires, becomes attached, continues, and at rebirth reappears or enters a new existence" (Vis.M. XVII. 117).
[The Three Universal Characteristics of Existence are that all things are radically impermanent, unable to fulfill (ultimately unsatisfactory, disappointing, liable to suffering), and impersonal.]
While in the case of the first two characteristics, it is stated that all "formations" (sabbe sankhārā) are impermanent and subject to suffering, the corresponding text for the third characteristic states that "all things are not-self" (sabbe dhammā anattā, MN 35, Dhp. 279).
This is for emphasizing that the wrong view of assuming, believing, holding that it is an abiding self or substance is neither applicable to any "formation" or conditioned phenomenon, nor to nirvana (the "unconditioned element" (asankhatā dhātu)
The "Discourse on the Characteristic of Not-Self" (Anattā-Lakkhana Sutta) was the second discourse delivered by the historical Buddha after his great awakening, enlightenment (maha-bodhi) to his first five disciples, who after hearing it attained to the same awakening (arhatship).
The contemplation of not-self (anattā-anupassanā) leads to the freedom of the "emptiness liberation" (suññatā-vimokkha).
At the next two stages of enlightenment, one becomes a "vision-attainer" (ditthippatta or "right view reacher"), and at the ultimate stage of "full awakening" (arhatship), one is called "liberated by wisdom" (paññā-vimutti). More
Tao Temple (video); Ven. Nyanatiloka (Buddhist Dictionary) edited and clarified by Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly, summer 2026
This silly looking cartoon of a video is profound, so much so that we are included to call its maker, Greg Knows All, "Añña GREGḍañña" or "Greg who knows" (after the Buddha's very first enlightened disciple, Añña Konḍañña, "Kaundinya who knows, who see").
When the wandering ascetic Siddhartha first thought to teach and make known the Path to Enlightenment (Bodhi) and Liberation (Nirvana), what today the ancient Theravada tradition calls "Buddhism" or Buddha-Dhamma (The Doctrine of the Awakened One), he had no one to teach, no one at least whom he thought would understand. There were his wise albeit unenlightened teachers, but they were passed away and reborn in worlds where they could not be reached for a very long time. Some planes of existence are so long lasting, it's staggering. So he realized his five former companions on his spiritual quest might get it. When he taught them, one did. And that was Kondanna (Kaudinya)
He may be reading this from somewhere, possibly What the Buddha Taught or a scholarly rundown of the historical Buddha's path by Bhikkhu Bodhi or Ven. Professor Analayo. Wow, Greg.
Monastic Disciplinary Rules (Patimokkha, the "Path to Moksha" for Buddhist nuns and monks)
The Buddha's Gradual Path of Progress does not drop off suddenly but deepens like the ocean shelf, producing its result. 1) Virtue is established to bring about peace of mind and serenity of spirit free of misgivings and worry. 2) Atop that foundation of peace and blamelessness, stillness (samadhi), profound peace of mind, is placed. 3) The crowning of this pyramid is what establishes it and makes it permanent, insight (the gnostic experience of wisdom for oneself and depending on no one's authority, direct knowing-and-seeing, personal realization)
The British Pali Text Society was established in 1881 and gave us some of the very first translations of ancient Theravada Buddhist texts by such renowned and influential scholars as:
who in turn had such a preponderant influence on Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journalthat, were it not for PTS and BPS, there would be no WQ in the English language.
Why Pali and not Sanskrit?
Pali [Magadhior Magadhi Prakrit, a lingua franca similar to but simpler than Vedic Sanskrit, the exclusive liturgy language of elitist Brahmin priests who adhered to the Old Vedic Religion that preceded Hinduism by thousands of years] is the language of the most complete collection of early Buddhist texts, the Pali canon or Ti-pitaka (the collected Buddhist texts in "Three Baskets" of suttas, vinaya, and abhidhamma), which constitutes "the word of the historical Buddha" as handed down by the tradition of Theravada (the "Teachings of the Enlightened Elders of the Buddha") Buddhism for over 2,000 years.
Since 1881 the Pali Text Society has promoted the study of Pali texts by publishing editions, translations, and other works related to the study of Pali literature.
On the new website one can purchase PTS publications, download many PTS publications for FREE, and find other material and links related to the study of Pali Buddhist texts.
One can also support the Society by becoming a member, getting a 20% discount on all purchases: palitextsociety.org
The 14th Dalai Lama, more a Hindu Mahayana Buddhist teacher preaching Tibetan Vajrayana than Buddhism, demonstrates a poor grasp of what the historical Buddha taught about "self" (anatta).
What Hinduism calls the soul/self or Ātman (Pali Atta, Ātman (Hinduism Buddhified), what to followers of the pre-Hindu Old Vedic Religion (the Brahmin priests' Brahmanism) is ultimately the same as Brahman(GOD), comparing drops of water to the vast ocean they merge with and ultimately return to after experiencing a sense of separation. The historical Buddha did not talk like this at all.
ANY explanation of what happens to the "self" (soul, ego, personality, essence of a person) after death (indeed of what happens in this very life from moment to moment) must include reference and a discussion of Dependent Origination. For what arises and what seems to arise is not the same; similarly, what passes away and what seems to pass away is not the same.
The one bad habit the Buddha feared most (Little Light of Wisdom) Dec. 6, 2025: In this episode we explore a powerful teaching the Buddha gave to his son, Rahula, now a young monk. He used a simple glass of water and a royal war elephant. Together we learn:
Why the Buddha said there is one bad habit that opens the door to every other bad action
How an empty glass shows what happens to our good qualities when we lie
How a king’s elephant teaches us about trust, courage, and honesty
Why lying creates confusion, blame, and karmic trouble in our lives
How telling the truth protects our heart, our friendships, and our future
💛 This story is perfect for kids, teens, parents, and anyone who wants to grow in wisdom, kindness, and truthfulness. #BuddhaWisdom #DhammaTalk #BuddhistStories
Find this helpful? Please like, share, and subscribe so more people can learn these beautiful historical teachings. 🌱
(Dhamma Super Rich) Here is the life of the Buddha, or at least an attempt at the highlights, told in five minutes. Sadly, it makes the usual mistake of emphasizing the wrong thing while giving a gist of the allegory that is the Awakened One's life. The Buddha literally means "the Awakened One." Where does it go wrong?
Anyone listening to this summary might conclude that the reason the wandering ascetic Siddhartha was able to "awaken" (become enlightened) is because he made a strong determination (a vow to sooner shrivel up and have his blood turn to dust before getting up from) under the Bodhi tree. He determined to awaken by a massive effort.
Clear vision happens if we strain and strive?
Anyone familiar with the story of in detail of how Siddhartha became the Buddha might notice that this is exactly why for nearly seven years he failed and could not awaken, not breakthrough, not bring about ultimate realization (penetrating insight).
It was only when he, in a sense, "gave up" pushing (extreme asceticism) and muscling (efforting) -- and instead surrendered self will -- that awakening happened on its own.
(By Sayalay Susila, Dhr. Seven)
The Truth is always there. It's just that we do not notice it, do not comprehend things as they really are, do not penetrate what we have learned and memorized to the heart of the matter. What is missing is not the Truth to be perceived. What is missing is our clear-vision, our undistorted knowing-and-seeing. And this will not be accomplished by more and more effort. That would be like straining and squinting the dust-covered eye as if by mere effort-of-will things would become clear. They will not. We must first purify the mind/heart that knows and sees. That is temporarily by the absorptions. CONTINUED
Dhamma Super Rich (video); text by Dhr. Seven; Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
The THREE SCHOOLS of BUDDHISM explained: Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna
(Buddha's Wisdom) May 25, 2025: 🔍 THE 3 PATHS TO ENLIGHTENMENT: WHICH ONE SPEAKS TO YOU?
How did one teacher's simple message create three different paths to enlightenment? Three monks sit in meditation...but they’re not seeking the same thing.
One follows the Buddha’s exact words (Theravada). Another vows to save every living being (Mahayana). The third uses esoteric [Vedic, Brahminical, Hindu, tantric] practices hidden for centuries.
How did Buddhism split into three radically different paths — and what does it mean for our spiritual journey today?
03:16 - Chapter 1: Theravada - The Way of the Elders
07:25 - Chapter 2: Mahayana - The Great Vehicle
11:33 - Chapter 3: Vajrayana - The Diamond Vehicle
15:44 - Chapter 4: When Buddhism meets itself
18:53 - The One Mind: Which path did the Buddha intend?
DISCOVER
Why Buddhism split into three schools after the Buddha's passing into final nirvana
The dangerous mission that saved Theravada Buddhism from extinction
How Avalokiteshvara's broken heart created the Mahayana revolution
The secret tantric techniques that promise enlightenment in a single lifetime
Why mixing Buddhist traditions might be exactly what the modern world needs [at least that's what we as Americans seem to think]
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SOURCES
The Pali canon (Theravada texts)
Lotus Sutra (Mahayana literature)
Tibetan Book of the Dead (Vajrayana teachings)
Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction by Damien Keown
The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Ven. Nyanaponika Thera
The big cultural celebration at the Mindfulness Meditation Center petered out, as most of the Sri Lankan community still had Vesak religious celebrations to attend at other Sinhalese-speaking venues. NoHo's Sarathchandra Buddhist Temple had a large turnout in the run up to its big Vesak lunar observance (Poya Day) on May 25, 2025.
Vesak Day Pali chanting of blessings
CLARIFICATION: Sarathchandra Temple in NoHo is celebrating a Bangladeshi Buddhist version of Vesak on Sunday, May 18, and will hold the traditional Sri Lankan version on Sunday May 25, 2025. The monks participated in Long Beach's Bodhi Mission Bangladeshi Vihara's Vesak on the May 17 in the morning and chanting in NoHo in the evening. Why? It is the joyous season of Vesak, which brings out the best in cultural celebrations for countries all over Asia and the diaspora.
Vesak continues on May 25, 2025
In Buddhist Sri Lanka (the tradition of the dominant group, the ethnic Sinhalese), the teardrop island off the tip of Southern India, which is also home to Hindus, Christians, Muslims, and animistic indigenous folk surviving in the jungles, VESAK is a weeklong celebration that is prepared for and remembered for the entire month. The great Los Angeles area has various Sri Lankan Buddhist viharas ("monasteries") in Los Angeles (Dharma Vijaya, which celebrated May 10, 2025), Covina (Mindfulness Meditation Center), the Valley (Sarathchandra Temple, North Hollywood), Sunland, and elsewhere.
Vesak Day in Theravada Buddhist Sri Lanka
Public Vesak celebrations, May 11 and 18th
Sunday, May 18, 2025, will see two giant Vesak (commemoration of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and passing into final nirvana on the full moon day of the same month called Vesakha on the ancient lunar calendar) celebrations in LA's two valleys. NoHo in the San Fernando Valley holds its annual celebration (beginning tonight, Saturday, May 17th, with chanting of blessings), observing the Eight Precepts, practicing meditation, Pali canon chanting, blessings, and lots and lots of island cuisine on May 18, 2025 and May 25, 2025. Far to the east in the San Gabriel Valley city of Covina, the Mindfulness Meditation Center (formerly the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara of Hollywood then Pasadena) will have its annual Sri Lankan cultural celebration of Vesak on May 18, 2025, following last Sunday's full moon religious observance (the Uposatha or Poya Day as it is known in Sri Lanka) and meditation retreat. Both events are free, and all are welcome. Wear white. Call to confirm details.
Usually, the young Mexican American monk Rev. SanathaVihari is present in NoHo, but he is currently visiting Vietnam
It's not a trick question, even though mindfulness is always in season, always of benefit [if done correctly and not practiced incorrectly while thinking it's mindfulness, which is where people get in trouble.]
Ajahn Sona answers just as one might think the Buddha would. Right Effort comes before mindfulness.
Noble (Aryan) = "Enlightening"
[Only this isn't exactly true. The Noble or Ennobling (Enlightening) Eightfold Path, in spite of its name, is not a step-by-step guide to practice. One does not one day wake up, develop Right View, and then carry on through the remaining seven factors. It's nothing like that. Every factor supports every other factor. They co-arise, to a greater or lesser degree, simultaneously. They interdepend. They mutually support. So just as one is practicing fourfold Right Effort -- one is carrying on mindfully and boosting all of the other factors right at that moment.
the effort to prevent the arising of unwholesome states (eliminating harmful and unwholesome mental states that have already arisen);
the effort to generate wholesome states (like the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, guarding the sense doors, restraining the sense faculties);
the effort to maintain wholesome mental states that have already arisen;
the effort to keep these states free of delusion, to develop, increase, cultivate, and perfect them.]
Back cover of book
Right Effort is a sadly neglected factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. There are endless retreats about "mindfulness," but the sixth factor of the path, Right Effort, is woefully underappreciated and not talked about enough in Buddhist circles.
It's one of the most inspiring and beautiful of the path factors, full of so many clear instructions about how to navigate in the inner world and in the outer world.
Ajahn Sona teaching at Birken Forest
This Dharma book is an attempt to bring Right Effort out of the shadows of its glamorous sister, beautiful Right Mindfulness, by going back to the basic sutras of the Pali language canon and examining the language of the Buddha around this essential training.
[Remember, if one were practicing Right Effort correctly, one would be practicing mindfulness. and the practice of Right Mindfulness is essential to the Buddha's practice as a whole.]
(Doug's Dharma) Politics and Society. Let's look at what the historical Buddha had to say about politics and society. He had a very interesting approach and some unique insights to provide.
This is the third Doug's Dharma YouTube video, so it's a bit rougher than some of the later ones. His apologies. Check out his Patreon page: dougsseculardharma. Some posts on Early Buddhism and politics at the Secular Buddhist Association:
Disclaimer: Amazon links are affiliate links where Doug will earn a very small commission on purchases made at no additional cost to the purchaser. This goes a tiny way towards defraying the costs of making these videos. Thanks.
The Buddha's Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
By Bhikkhu Bodhi with foreword by the Dalai Lama, Kindle Edition
This anthology of translated Theravada Buddhist discourses (sutras) has 4.8 out of 5 stars with 197 ratings. It is part of the series The Teachings of the Buddha (10 books).
In a world of conflict and strife, how can we be advocates of peace and justice?
In this volume, acclaimed American Buddhist scholar-monk Dr. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ph.D., has collected and translated the Buddha’s teachings on
conflict resolution,
interpersonal and social problem-solving, and
the forging of harmonious relationships.
The selections, all drawn from the Pali canon, the earliest record of the historical Buddha’s discourses, are organized into ten thematic chapters. The chapters deal with such topics as
the quelling of anger,
good friendship,
intentional communities,
the settlement of disputes, and
the establishing of an equitable society.
Each chapter begins with a concise and informative introduction by the translator that guides us toward a deeper understanding of the texts that follow.
In times of social conflict, intolerance, and war, the Buddha’s approach to creating and sustaining peace takes on a new and urgent significance.
Even readers unacquainted with Buddhism will appreciate these ancient teachings, always clear, practical, undogmatic, and so contemporary in flavor.
The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony will prove to be essential reading for anyone seeking to bring peace into their communities and into the wider world.
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