The First Precept

Bernie Glassman is back again with more words of wisdom from Tricycle Daily Dharma. This time, he is talking about the first precept taught by the Buddha. The traditional rendering of this precept is, “Non-killing,” or  “To abstain from killing any living creature.” This is sometimes taken to extreme by certain monks and nuns in […]

The Eightfold Path

These words of wisdom come from the Tricycle Daily Dharma for January 30, 2014. They talk about the eight steps in the Eightfold Path of the Buddha. These steps have been the subject of many articles in these pages and it is always good to gain another perspective. Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a well-know Sri […]

Right View

These words of wisdom came to me from the Tricycle Daily Dharma for January 17,2014. They come from an article by Mark Epstein. Dr. Epstein is an American psychiatrist trained at Harvard who has been a practicing Buddhist since his early twenties. He is a frequent contributor to Tricycle Magazine. The quote from his article, […]

6 Things Uniting in Harmony

The 6 things uniting in harmony to be remembered were spoken by the Buddha. These came to me in an email from Bhikkhu Samahita The Blessed Buddha once said: These six things are to be remembered in order to unite any community in harmony: Which six? Friendly Behavior both in public & in private. Friendly […]

Foundations Of Buddhist Thought – The Eightfold Path

In the previous segment of the Foundations of Buddhist Thought, we learned about The Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path is the fourth noble truth of the Buddha. The elements of The Eightfold Path can be characterized in three groups, which serve as the cornerstones of Buddhist practice. The first group is […]

Practicing Right View – Thich Nhat Hanh

The following quote is from my teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. He talks about practicing right view in order to relieve our suffering. Right View is one of the elements of the Eightfold path along with Right Speech, Right Thought, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Diligence, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. As the first […]

Practicing Right Speech – Roshi Joan Halifax

The article that contains the source material for this post about practicing right speech comes from the Upaya Institute and Zen Center blog. Roshi Joan Halifax is the founder and leader of Upaya. She is also a dharma teacher in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, so you can expect to see a […]