QUESTION: What you said so far is very interesting to me. How do I become a Buddhist? ANSWER: Once there was a man called Upali. He was the follower of another religion and he ...

QUESTION: What did the Buddha teach about magic and fortune telling? ANSWER: The Buddha considered such practices as fortune telling, wearing magic charms for protection, fixi...

QUESTION: If you eat meat you are indirectly responsible for the death of a creature. Isn’t that breaking the first precept? ANSWER: It is true that when you eat meat, you are...

QUESTION: I often hear Buddhists talk about wisdom and compassion. What do these two terms mean? ANSWER: Some religions believe that compassion or love (the two are very simil...

QUESTION: What is Meditation? ANSWER: Meditation is a conscious effort to change how the mind works. The Pali word for meditation is ‘bhavana’ which means ‘to make grow’ or ‘to...

QUESTION: Where does man come from and where is he going? ANSWER: There are three possible answers to this question. Those who believe in a god or gods usually claim that befor...

QUESTION: Do Buddhists believe in a god? ANSWER: No, we do not. There are several reasons for this. The Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists, believed that relig...

QUESTION: Other religions derive their ideas of right and wrong from the commandments of their god or gods. You Buddhists don’t believe in a god, so how do you know what is righ...

QUESTION: What are the main teachings of the Buddha? ANSWER: All of the many teachings of the Buddha centre on the Four Noble Truths just as the rim and spokes of a wheel centr...

QUESTION: What is Buddhism? ANSWER: The name Buddhism comes from the word ‘budhi’ which means ‘to wake up’ and thus Buddhism is the philosophy of awakening. This philosophy has...