Tag: devotional practices

• More Than a Reward: 5 Radical Ideas Hidden in a 2,000-Year-Old Buddhist Text

  

  For many, religious or spiritual practice is often seen through a transactional lens: perform specific actions, say the right words, do good deeds, and you will receive a reward—a better life, good fortune, or a favorable place in the hereafter. This view presents spiritual development as a kind of karmic accounting, where we steadily accumulate…

  William Altig

  October 17, 2025

  Chapter 17, The Great Teachings of the Lotus of the True Law

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• Lotus Sūtra’s Hidden Enlightenment

  

  I. Executive Summary Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sūtra marks a profound turning point in Buddhist thought, where five hundred of the Buddha’s monks realize the limitations of their previous spiritual attainments. Their declaration, “The Nirvāṇa we attained was Only part of the immeasurable treasures of yours. We were like a foolish man with no…

  William Altig

  September 15, 2025

  Chapter 8, The Great Teachings of the Lotus of the True Law

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• Chapter 6–The Glorious Destiny of Maha-Katyayana: Homage, Stupas, and Buddhahood

  

  The Master once more addressed the gathered monks: I want to share with you, monks, that the senior Maha-Katyayana, my disciple here, will pay homage to eighty billion Buddhas. He will show them respect, honor, reverence, veneration, and devotion. After the passing of these enlightened ones, he will erect stupas—monumental towers that are a thousand…

  William Altig

  November 14, 2023

  Chapter 6, The Great Teachings of the Lotus of the True Law

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