Carl Abbott

A Moment of This-ness In 1964 I was living in Bangkok, riding to work each day on the bus. I was twenty-two. Word had come that my younger brother had died — he was eighteen — and what I felt was a profound curiosity. The utter black-and-white starkness of life on one side and nothing […]

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Introduction: A Paradox at the Heart of Buddhism Buddhism presents us with an apparent contradiction. In the Second Noble Truth, Buddha tells us that “the illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things.” Yet in the Third Truth, he says that by “conquering self, the flames of desire will be extinguished.” […]

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Entropy → Fear → Need → Action → Life Meaning → “Happiness” (→ = gives rise to, begets, causes) This chain-of-causation is offered not as scientific proof but as a pointer — something to test against your own experience. As Buddha insisted: take nothing on faith. Verify it yourself, or discard it. Two Separate Questions […]

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