Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen Batchelor, author of Buddhism Without Beliefs, about the role of study in Buddhist practice. Often, it seems Buddhists fall into talking about two possible paths: that of the practitioner, and that of the scholar,...

A friend of mine once had to explain to her four-year-old son that the woman who had been providing child care for him since he was born was going to move away. Because her child was very attached to this person, my friend carefully told him about this step-by-step,...

The first verse of Shantideva’s “Patience” chapter, in his Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, reads: Whatever wholesome deeds, Such as venerating the buddhas and [practicing] generosity, That have been amassed over a thousand aeons, Will all be destroyed in one...

Growing up outside Philadelphia back in the 1980s, I found myself attracted to practicing meditation to attain enlightenment. When I was first exposed to Buddhism, I assumed that silent sitting meditation, with or without the single-minded contemplation of koans, was...

For over thirty years I worked as a doctor in the field of child abuse—examining and/or interviewing children who’d been raped, burned, beaten, and killed, most often by their caretakers. Every time I thought I’d seen the worst cruelty adults could perpetrate on a...

‘For us, to be alive is to practise. The question is our very life. If we hold it continuously, this is proof that we are alive.’ Haechun Sunim

Have you ever read about the "elder daughter syndrome"? A brief explanation of it is that as the oldest daughter in a family experiences immense responsibility and expectations from a very young age, it makes her have tendencies to be overachieving, people-pleasing,...

‘The enlightenment in which you see your true mind and realise your true nature is transmitted outside of the scriptures; it is not based on names and words.’ Bassui Tokushō

Brahmaviharas (The Four Immeasurables): Equanimity, Loving Kindness, Compassion, and Sympathetic Joy.

When I took my first steps down the Buddhist path I learned several uncomfortable truths about myself. For example, I learned that much of my suffering was self-created. Sometimes, my mind was clouded by feelings of greed, anger, and ignorance, which caused me to make...