What does it mean to live the holy life? According to David Brooks, it means to live a life of purpose. It means to live a life with moral values. It means to live a life with a sense of gratitude and tranquility and also helping others to do so. “We don’t live for happiness, […]
Lissa Rankin on Impermanence
I just received this email from Lissa Rankin on impermanence. She talks about how resisting change as a cause for suffering. Resisting change is just like being hit with a second arrow, as the Buddha put it. He said that the first arrow is the one which causes an injury with its unavoidable pain and […]
Your Brain at Work
Your Brain at Work is the title of David Rock’s book that presents strategies to overcome distractions, regain focus, and be smarter all day long. One of the most successful strategies is the reappraisal of anything external that causes distress. Like the Buddha‘s teaching of the The Second Arrow, the pain caused by the distress […]
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 […]
The Importance of Sangha
Tomorrow, I’m going to the Earth Holder Retreat at the Deer Park Monastery where the importance of sangha in Buddhist practice is realized. The Practicing Pamphlet which I received clearly states, We have come to practice together as a community. We do not encourage isolated practices or solo retreats. We are part of a body […]
Hope, Faith and Love
This lovely poem on the subject of hope, faith and love came to me from Lama Surya Das and I am truly grateful. It embeds some wonderful teachings about what we can accomplish in our lives, what is true and beautiful and how we are interdependent on others for our happiness. Nothing worth doing is […]
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 […]
Release and Let Go
This exercise to release and let go is part of a 21-day Happiness Challenge from Luminita Saviuc, also known as the Purpose Ferry. According to Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (if my memory servers me :)), the Buddha taught that the third and fourth elements of the first foundation of mindfulness in the Satipatthana Sutra […]
The Path of Awakening…
The path of awakening is not an easy path, as I have been finding out over the past 40 years. Truly, there have been wonderful moments of awakening, but then I would fall back into the pursuit of money for the support of myself and my family. After a while, I caught myself and began […]
Teachings of the Buddha
In today’s lesson, we learn some of the teachings of the Buddha that have come to me from generous dharma teachers, Zen masters, and other resources. The first is from Roshi Joan Halifax: What the Buddha Taught The Buddha taught that we should practice helping others while cultivating deep concentration, compassion, and wisdom. He further […]
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