Everyday Lay Practice on Buddhist Resources

Taking Refuge: Becoming a Buddhist

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:27:39 +0200

There is a single answer to the question of what makes someone a Buddhist, and it is unusually clear: going for refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

Dana: The Practice of Generosity

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:28:41 +0200

Dana is the practice Western Buddhists most consistently underestimate and the one the canon emphasises most.

It is the first of the six perfections and the first of the ten Theravada paramis. It is the first topic in the Buddha’s graduated instruction to laypeople — generosity, then virtue, then the heavens, then the drawbacks of sensual pleasure, and only then the Four Noble Truths. It is what the entire monastic institution depends on. And it is, by an enormous margin, what most Buddhists across Asia have actually done as their principal practice.

Buddhism and Vegetarianism

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:30:49 +0200

Many Westerners assume Buddhists are vegetarian. The Dalai Lama eats meat. Thai and Sri Lankan monks eat whatever is placed in the alms bowl. Japanese Zen temples serve elaborate vegetarian cuisine. Chinese monastics are strictly vegetarian and often avoid onions and garlic as well.

Finding a Teacher and a Sangha

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:30:49 +0200

The single most consistent piece of advice in Buddhism, across every tradition, is to find a teacher and a community. It is also the advice a website is least able to act on, and this page is written with that limitation in view.