Tag: Pratyekabuddhas

• This 2,000-Year-Old Text Is a Recipe for Life—Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Just Read It

  

  Introduction: The Gap Between Knowing and Doing There’s a well-known gap between knowing something in theory and understanding it through experience. An old metaphor captures this perfectly: you can read a recipe for a meal, memorize every ingredient, and understand the chemistry of cooking, but you will remain completely ignorant of the food’s taste. True…

  William Altig

  October 8, 2025

  Chapter 5, The Great Teachings of the Lotus of the True Law

  Arhat, Bodhicitta, Bodhisattva, Bodhisattvas of the Earth, Buddha-nature, Burning House Parable, Chapter Two, Compassion, dṛṣṭi, Ekayāna, Engaged Buddhism, expedient means, insight, Insight of the Buddha, kosen-rufu, kōans, Lotus Sūtra, One Vehicle, Pedagogy, practice, prajñā, Pratyekabuddhas, Prodigal Son Parable, Pāramitās, realization, Recipe analogy, Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra, Samsara, Six Perfections, Skillful Means, Tathāgata, Tathāgatagarbha, Theravada Buddhism, three vehicles, upāya, vipassanā, wisdom, zazen, Zen Buddhism, śrāvakas

• The Quest for Enlightenment: An Analysis of the Brahma King’s Verses in the Lotus Sūtra

  

  I. Introduction The Lotus Sūtra, revered as one of the most influential texts in Mahayana Buddhism, is celebrated for its profound teachings on the inherent potential for Buddhahood in all beings and its skillful use of parables to illuminate complex Buddhist principles.1 Central to its message is the concept of expedient means (upaya), where the…

  William Altig

  April 14, 2025

  Chapter 7

  arhats, Avalokiteśvara, Bodhi, Brahma King Great Compassion, Brahma Kings, Brahma Sahampati, Brahmaloka, Buddha, Buddha Dharma, Buddha Great-Penetrating-Wisdom-Victory, Buddhism, Buddhist cosmology, Buddhist deities, Buddhist meditation, buddhist parables, Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Symbolism, Chapter Seven, Compassion, Dharma, Dharmapala, Eightfold Path, Enlightenment, ethical conduct, expedient means, Four Noble Truths, Great Compassion, Guanshiyin, hinduism, Ichinen Sanzen, Jhanas, Lotus Sutra, Lotus Sūtra, Magic City Parable, Mahayana Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism, Nirvana, one-eyed turtle analogy, Parable of the Magic City, Pratyekabuddhas, rare encounter with Buddha, religious study, Samsara, Samyaksambuddhas, Spiritual Journey, Spiritual Liberation, three thousand worlds, trichiliocosm, Upaya