9 Minute Meditation Course

The 9 Minute Meditation course will help you reduce or eliminate stress from your life. In just 9 minutes a day, you will be able to manage your stress, anxiety, and worries in new and different ways. 9 Minute Meditation will help you also in other aspects of your life. Your relationships with your family, […]

The Manifesto by Charlie Chaplin

A bowler hat. Baggy pants. A comedic mustache. What’s the first thing that comes to mind? For most people, it’s the comic visionary ­Charlie Chaplin. And although he entertained early movie­ goers in silence… it was his words of wisdom that had the power to inspire. His iconic speech in the movie “The Dictator” is […]

Let My Heart Fly Open

Welcome to 2014. May this be the year that all your dreams come true. To begin the New Year with the right mindset, I’d like to offer the following metta practice. Metta is the Pali word for loving kindness. Loving kindness, in turn, is one of the Four Immeasurable Minds taught by the Buddha. The […]

Compassion With Thich Nhat Hanh

When Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh was in the Bay Area, he appeared at The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University with Dr. James Doty on October 24, 2013. Dr. Doty engaged in a conversation on compassion with Thich Nhat Hanh, known as Thay by his followers. They talked […]

What Gives Rise To Human Dignity And Nobility?

I just found this interesting book by Venerable Dr. K Sri Dhammananda Thero. He was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and scholar in the Theravada tradition who lived between 1919 and  2006. He lived mostly in Malaysia and Singapore. There are many books to his credit. I stumbled across this one titled, “Human Dignity in […]

Stories We Tell Ourselves

This quote is from Sharon Salzberg, a renowned teacher of vipassana meditation and co-founder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies with Joseph Goldstein. She is especially known for her teachings on loving kindness meditation. Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that […]

Mindfulness Is Not Just Bare Attention

Poep Sa Frank Jude is an OI1 member and a dharma teacher. He joined the conversation we had about the Boston bombings a couple of weeks ago. For example, see Don’t Despair – Take Action, All You Need Is Love, We Need To Root Out Seeds Of  Anger, and A Marine And An Army Veteran. I’ve been meaning to […]

In Praise Of Mother Earth

This poem came to me by email from the monks and nuns at the Deer Park Monastery of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in honor of Earth Day. IN PRAISE OF MOTHER EARTH (written by Thay, Thich Nhat Hanh)   Homage to you Refreshing Earth Bodhisattva Mother of this world with its many species. We want […]

Meditation Develops Certainty And Conviction

In the Weekly Words of Wisdom chosen by Lama Surya Das, Dudjom Rimpoche says that “If you do meditate, certainty and conviction will be attained.” I was immediately grabbed by this statement because certainty and conviction came up in my morning meditation yesterday. I was listening to a meditation recording by Kelly Howell called, The Secret to […]

True Love Knows No Boundaries

One of the most beautiful teachings of the Buddha was his teaching that true love knows no boundaries. This idea was expressed in the metta sutta as a mother’s love for her child: Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart, should one cherish all living beings. […]