bodhi tree swaying

Metaphors can be traps. We can end up taking them too literally. The point of a metaphor is to help us see things more clearly (“time slips through our hands like sand” helps us connect something intangible and abstract, like time, to a physical experience, like sand trickling through our fingers). But sometimes metaphors mislead, [...]

This post is part of some writing I’m doing for a book. It’s the first part of a chapter giving the background behind the Buddhist teachings of anatta (non-self) and sunyata (emptiness). Hopefully it’ll be followed soon by the second part of the chapter. Comments are welcome!

I became interested in Buddhist teachings because I was interested in meditation. At that time time I was still in high school, and experiencing some of the usual angst that teenagers experience, plus an extra dose because all of my best friends at school had moved away. Isolation, at that age, causes a pain that is piercing. I’d heard of meditation, and had the idea that it involved looking inside of yourself for your sources of happiness, well-being, and security. Since the outside world had proved to be very unreliable, that promise was alluring to an …