Embrace Your Anger

angry_mind

For several months now, I have been encouraging you to learn how to embrace your anger. What does it mean to “embrace your anger?” When anger arises, you almost always have the urge to launch out at what you conceive to be the cause of your anger. This only creates more suffering. A better plan [...]

Many Types of Mindfulness Meditation

Many Type of Meditation

In this article, I am going to review Dr. Philippe Goldin’s Google Talk from March 1, 2008. I have already posted the video as Meditation Practices: How Do They Affect The Brain? My purpose in this article is to extract one of the slides from the video and expand on it from the point of view [...]

What Is The Difference Between Ill-being And Well-being?

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Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (affectionately known as Thay to his followers) talks about the four noble truths of the Buddha in a way that is easy to understand. He uses the concepts of ill-being and well-being. What is the difference between ill-being and well-being? He teaches that the first noble truth is the fact of [...]

Real Presence

Know Your Type

The Weekly Words of Wisdom chosen by Lama Surya Das for this week are from Father Richard Rohr. I first encountered Father Rohr when I was in my enneagram certification program with Helen Palmer between 1989 and 1991. His book, Enneagram, was a major contribution to enneagram studies at the time. The relevance of this quote [...]

Happy In The Present Moment

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Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, known affectionately as Thay by his followers, consistently teaches us that “We have everything we need to be happy in the present moment.” “Happiness is here and now” is the name of the song in this video. It makes a lot of sense to me. We can be happy that we have [...]

“Mindfulness Is A Way Of Living Your Life”

Dr. John Kabat-Zinn

“Mindfulness is a way of living your life as if it really matters and that involves being in the present moment with open hearted presence and kindness towards yourself” says Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in the video on this page. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of [...]

True Love Is Made Of Understanding

True Love is Made of Understanding

My teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, is constantly reinforcing the experience that true love is make of understanding. This teaching is simple and profound. If we don’t understand our beloved, how can there be true love? We must develop the willingness and capacity to understand the person we love. True love requires us to [...]

Mindfulness Is Not Just Bare Attention

Poep Sa Frank Jude

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 [...]

Buddha Gate Monastery

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Last Saturday, my wife and I visited the Buddha Gate Monastery in Lafayette, California. The monastery is on 17 acres of beautiful land in what is know as the East Bay of San Francisco. [Read More...] The monastery is supported by the Chan tradition of Grand Master Venerable Wei Chueh who organized many monasteries in Taiwan as well as [...]

Planting Seeds Of Compassion

Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation Image

On Monday, I posted the Words of Wisdom chosen by Lama Surya Das in an article titled Acceptance, Joy, Peace And Love. The quote in that article was from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, affectionately known as Thay by his followers. This quote is also from Thay and it came to me Wednesday morning from [...]