Simple Kindness by Ajahn Candasiri

Simple Kindness by Ajahn Candasiri

When I first came to Buddhist practice I was quite surprised at how much emphasis was put on virtue or sīla, on the way that we live our lives. 

I had already been practising meditation for some time within other traditions, and somehow I had managed to separate meditation from the rest of my life. Meditation was something I did on certain evenings during the week, and at other times I did other things. 

But what struck me most about the way that the Buddha teaches was the encouragement to see the whole of our life as practice. 

How we live, how we speak, and how we act are all part of our practice.

~  Ajahn Candasiri, 

Simple Kindness

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"When invited to look at Jesus through Buddhist eyes, I had imagined that I would use a ‘compare and contrast’ approach, rather like a school essay. I was brought up as a Christian and turned to Buddhism in my early thirties, so of course I have ideas about both traditions: the one I grew up in and turned aside from, and the one I adopted and continue to practice within. 

But after re-reading some of the gospel stories, I would like to meet Jesus again with fresh eyes, and to examine the extent to which he and the Buddha were in fact offering the same guidance, even though the traditions of Christianity and Buddhism can appear in the surface to be rather different." 

~ Ajahn Candasiri