“What is the purpose, venerable sir, what is the benefit of virtue?”
“Freedom from remorse, Ananda.”

Active Dharma is a Buddhist spiritual practice for lay practitioners that uses the chaos of daily life as a vehicle for purification.

The goal of Active Dharma practitioners is to achieve nobility through the heroic practice of Buddhadharma.

Its practice requires cultivating honesty about one’s condition and consistently abandoning selfish impulses.

While there is a time and place for passive spiritual practice, Active Dharma, as its name suggests, favors active practice.

Our method is based on the Triple Training established by the Buddha:

  • Wisdom (paññā)
  • Right Action (sīla)
  • Meditation (samādhi).
 

Through these three practices, we establish the foundation for genuine selfless and heroic conduct, based on the realization that the ego is impossible to establish (anatta).

In our view, only then is one truly ready to benefit others.

Active Dharma is strictly governed by the principle of conditionality (idappaccayata), which states: if this arises, that arises. If this ceases, that ceases.

Conditionality means that if wisdom arises, right action arises. If right action arises, right meditation arises.

Following the same principle, if wisdom does not arise, right action does not arise either, resulting in the absence of total freedom.

Through this understanding, we avoid skipping the steps necessary for genuine spiritual development.

If this sounds like a path you would like to follow, sign up to the Thunderbolt substack here.