Everyone, no matter how privileged, has moments when their world falls apart. Fear, despair, and grief can overwhelm us as we struggle with debilitating illness, economic insecurity, or the death of a beloved spouse or child. If we are members of a marginalized group,...
Ever since I can remember, I’ve battled a deep and insistent melancholy—an undercurrent of sorrow that seems almost intrinsic to who I am. Growing up I countered this sadness with a lot of effort, a lot of doing. I was always pushing—pushing to be the first, to be the...
1. Mindfulness of Breath While there are many variations of this practice, this simple version is common to many Buddhist traditions and is a mainstay of the secular mindfulness movement. It is a foundation of the path to enlightenment and offers immediate benefits to...
‘The word 'self' denotes the same thing which the word 'Buddha' denotes.’ Manjushri
From Variety comes news that a new film inspired by the lives of the sainted eleventh-century Tibetan Buddhist figures Jetsun Milarepa and Marpa Lotsawa will be coming soon (though no official date seems to have been announced yet). Titled Milarepa and written and...
‘Let go of the sorrow of disgrace and the joy of success.’ Zen master Hsuan Chuen
I first encountered the five remembrances when I was a chaplaincy student at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies. Diana Lion, one of the teachers, handed us an altar card with five statements from the Upajjhatthana Sutta. Here they are in their blunt simplicity and...
Last week, while I was eating lunch with a friend, he brought up a subject many of us are talking about these days: we’re nearing the end of our lives and wondering what’s next. His brother-in-law had just lost his wife to pancreatic cancer; she died just weeks after...
Going to a retreat or program is a wonderful way to deepen our meditation practice. But how do we stay connected with these waking-up practices when we go home to the myriad projects, emails, responsibilities, and distractions waiting for us? This is a question that...
‘When we are mindful and accept the way it is, then we are not creating hostility.’ Ajahn Sumedho