What this actually is, in plain words
For beginners — and for everyone who grew up around it and never got it explained in English. No jargon, no lectures, no belief required. Start anywhere; every page ends with the next three.
One page on what this is
Not a religion you have to join, not a mood you have to reach.
The ideas underneath
Four truths, a path, three marks, karma, rebirth — one page each.
Three minutes, right now
Every idea here has a reset that uses it. Reading is optional; breathing isn’t.
What is this, really?
One page that answers the question nobody sat you down to explain.
What is Buddhism, really?
It started with a person, not a god. What he noticed, why your family’s version looks the way it does, and how to use these pages.
The spine of the whole thing
Six ideas, one page each, no old words until you need them. Read in order or wander.
What the Buddha actually taught
The Four Noble Truths as a doctor’s diagnosis: there’s an ache, here’s its cause, it can ease, here’s how.
The eight-part path
Eight ordinary areas of life to nudge — not eight commandments to pass.
Three things that are true about everything
Everything changes, nothing quite satisfies, and there’s no fixed self doing the wanting.
Karma is not a scoreboard
It means action, not cosmic revenge. Why the internet version is almost backwards.
Do Buddhists believe in reincarnation?
A straight answer, including where traditions disagree and what your family most likely believes.
Mindfulness and meditation are not the same thing
One is a quality, one is an activity — and which you’re actually doing during a reset.
Who is actually in your family’s house
The figures on the altar, explained — starting with the name your mother says all day.
Namo Amituofo: what you’re actually saying
The six characters, one at a time, and what it means to call a name instead of asking for something.
Who is Amitabha?
The Pure Land idea in plain English: not magic, not earning heaven — a practice built on trust.
Who is Guan Yin?
Compassion, given a face. Why she’s a woman in China, and what people are doing when they talk to her.
Is my grandmother’s temple the same religion as the Zen book?
Yes — cousins. A one-page family tree so you can finally place your own family.
Which Buddhism is my grandmother’s?
Theravada, Chinese Mahayana (Pure Land and Chan), Zen, Tibetan — and how to tell which temple you’re standing in.
The things you were dragged along to as a child
Chanting, bowing, incense, the ancestor hall — what’s happening, and what’s Buddhist versus older Chinese custom.
What actually happens in a Chinese temple
Where to stand, what to hold, when to bow, and what the counter with the envelopes is for.
Why we burn incense
Not bribing anyone. What the three sticks mean, and what to do if you live in an apartment.
Ancestor days, for people who left and came back
Qingming, Ghost Month, the death anniversary — and the smallest honest way to observe one from far away.
Three more ways in
Knowledge is one door. These are the others.
Things my mother said
One phrase from a Chinese childhood per piece, explained as what it actually is. Grace is writing the first one — tell her what your mother said.
Ask a Buddhist Grandma
The question you’d be embarrassed to ask your own mother. Answered plainly — and when I don’t know, I ask an elder and report back.
For the hardest days
What to do on the anniversary, what’s expected at a Chinese funeral, ancestor days for people who left and came back.
These pages are free, and always will be
If they help, the way to support the site is to share a page with someone who needs it — or, if you’re curious about your own chart, a hand-written BaZi reading is how FindBuddha keeps its lights on.