Embrace Everything With Clarity

Stephen Batchelor is a former Buddhist monk who wrote a book that I frequently return to. Actually, it is the book on tape called Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening that I love. It is narrated by Stephen Batchelor, himself. The book tries to present Buddhism in modern terms, with all the mysticism, […]

Giving Up Addictions

These words of wisdom from Pema Chodron came from the Tricycle Daily Dharma on April 15. Pema is the director of Gampo Abbey – one of the few Buddhist centers in North America that maintain the traditional monastic precepts. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh calls these the Five Mindfulness Trainings, which his has revived from […]

Dalai Lama Led The Opening Prayer For The Senate

On March 6, The Dalai Lama led the opening prayer for the Senate. This was the very first time he did that. He began with, Firstly, as usual, I am Buddhist monk – simple Buddhist monk. So I pray to Buddha and all other Gods. The first sentence I will read now in my broken […]

10 Obstacles In Meditation

In the book,  Seven Secrets to Stop Interruptions in Meditation: How to Concentrate, Focus on Your Meditation and Deal with Distractions, you will learn a simple and easy way to have a daily meditation practice and not be bothered by the top 10 obstacles in meditation. The method has even been taught to children as […]

Giving And Receiving

Many years ago, while listening to a talk by Pema Chodron, I heard her say something about a Tibetan practice called tonglen. A loose translation of tonglen is “giving and receiving.” Even a couple of years ago, I attended a concert in Oakland, California in which one of the artists played the piano and sang […]

5 More Reasons to Meditate

In a previous article, we learned 5 reasons to meditate from Brian Johnson. In today’s article, we are going to learn 5 more reasons to meditate from Pema Chodron. These are more like qualities we can develop in our meditation. Brian taught us these 5 reasons to meditate: strengthen your  mind, build willpower, optimize you […]

The Six Paramitas

After almost two weeks of articles about giving and the six paramitas, we come to a great video by Pema Chodron from a retreat she led in 1999 called, “Awakening Bodhichitta.” Bodhichitta literally means “heart-mind,” and is refers to awakening the mind of love, compassion, and awakening. The subject of the retreat is the training […]

Catching Ourselves

These words of wisdom from Pema Chodron appeared in the Tricycle Daily Dharma two days ago and I want to share them with you. Pema is one of the best known and respected teachers of Tibetan Buddhism in the Shambhala tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche. She is the abbess and beloved teacher of Gampo Abbey, […]

How To Live With Uncertainty

Pema Chodron teaches us how to live with uncertainty. In these words of wisdom from Tricycle Magazine, Pema Chodron tells us, “Our discomfort arises from all of our effort to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness.” Pema is one of the most popular teachers in the Wsst and certainly […]

Fear and Fearlessness

In yesterday’s post, Pema Chodron spoke about fear and fearlessness. Today’s Tricycle Daily Dharma had the following from Pema Chodron: Warm Heart, Clear Mind It’s as if everyone who has ever been born has the same birthright, which is enormous potential of warm heart and clear mind. The ground of renunciation is realizing that we […]