The Goal of Meditation

Many people think that the goal of meditation is to achieve a state called “enlightenment,” nirvana, the ultimate dimension, the other shore, or God. In actuality, many of the states are not achievable when we are caught in our thoughts, feelings, emotions, plans, dreams, fantasies, and memories. However, there is a state of well-being that […]

Vulnerability Practice

This vulnerability practice that you can explore sometime today in the privacy of your own pen and paper from Luminita Saviuc, The Purpose Ferry. “If you want to be happy, if you want to experience the many wonders of life, and if you want to feel what it really feels like to be fully alive, […]

The Happiness Equation

The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha gives us a unique set of seven actions that we can take each week to experience happiness in our lives. The Happiness Equations itself is very revealing: want nothing (i. e., non-attachment) + do anything (i. e., take action) = have everything (i. e., have everything we need to […]

The Three Poisons

The three poisons or the three roots (of suffering) were the subject of Brother Phap Vu‘s dharma talk on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at the Earth Holder Retreat in the Deer Park Monastery. The three poisons are variously translated as shown in the following table (reading down) desire greed attraction hatred ill-will aversion ignorance illusion […]

Nurturing Practices

This article is a summary of a wonderful dharma talk on nurturing practices given by Sister Mai Nghiem, a French nun and Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village Tradition. The dharma talk was given on April 29th, 2016 at the Earth Holder Retreat at the Deer Park Monastery last week. I was especially moved by […]

Guided Meditation for Loving Kindness

This guided meditation for loving kindness was created by Michael Sealey and is quite good for learning how to give and receive loving kindness, compassion, happiness, abundance and healing and eliminating stress and anxiety. Michael begins with a soothing body scan that takes about 7 minutes. Then he asks us to bring into mind an […]

Practicing Compassion

Here is some advice on practicing compassion which I received in an email from Wild Divine. I found this practice to be particularly beneficial because it relies on an old Buddhist practice of putting yourself in the other person’s frame of mind. As the Dalai Lama says, “If you want others to be happy, practice […]

Radical Remission and the 7 Strategies to Help YOU Survive

In this article, I show how Radical Remission and the 7 Strategies to Help YOU Survive flow together and provide two points of view about better health, healing and happiness (the 3 H’s)! I’m presenting these here in order to inspire you to sign up for Dr. Kelly Turner’s new course, RADICAL REMISSION: Applying the […]

Happiness Boosters

These words of wisdom from Tal Ben-Shahar, an American and Israeli author and lecturer. He talks about happiness boosters, which are moments of instant gratification that inspire him to carry on with his life. “In the past, I often reached a point where I felt depleted, when I had little enthusiasm for work (and sometimes […]

Mindfulness in Daily Life

These words of wisdom for Zen Master Eihei Dogen teach us about mindfulness in daily life. This is actually quite a universal teaching these days by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Phillip Moffitt, and many others. The idea is to take your mindfulness into your life in order to enrich your everyday experience. […]