‘As we deepen our meditation practice, a subtle yet transformative distinction begins to emerge: consciousness is the experience, whilst awareness is the function.’ Everyday Buddhism
Spirituality
Morning meditation — People sit beneath the Bodhi tree.
‘People sit beneath the Bodhi tree. But this doesn’t mean they have any profound understanding.’ Ajahn Chah
Morning meditation — Noticing a single shortcoming in ourselves.
‘Noticing a single shortcoming in ourselves is far more useful than seeing a 1,000 in someone else. We can correct our own.’ Dalai Lama
How to Do Green Tara Practice
Tara, the savioress, is the most beloved by Tibetans of all the female awakened beings. Tara is known as “she who ferries beings across the ocean of samsara.” She is fully enlightened and is inseparable from genuine reality, or true nature, the dharmakaya. She rushes...
What Cancer Taught Me
It was the quarantine Thanksgiving of 2020. Like so many other millennials that year, Vy, my future wife, and I were forced to be the adults in the kitchen for the first time. It was when I had my head bent to the candied yams and trussed turkey when Vy noticed I had...
Morning meditation — We know that not to crave anything is indeed the way to the Truth.
‘We know that not to crave anything is indeed the way to the Truth.’ Bodhidharma
Your Enlightened Nature
The essence of practice in the Dzogchen tradition is not some effort to change your thoughts or your behavior so you become a better person. It is realizing that no matter what you may think of yourself and your life, in reality you are already good, whole, and...
In the Footsteps of the Buddha
As he lay on his deathbed, the Buddha comforted his distraught disciple Ananda by telling him there were four places that those with faith in the buddhadharma should visit. These four were the pleasure garden in Lumbini, where he’d been born; under the tree by the...
Morning meditation — The perfection of giving is boundless.
‘The perfection of giving is boundless, And the same is true for pure precepts. The perfection of patience is boundless, Thus is the Buddha’s path revealed.’ Avaivartikacakra sūtra
Morning meditation — In contrast to consciousness, awareness is not tied.
‘In contrast to consciousness, awareness (sati) is not tied to any particular object or experience. It is not something that arises and passes away with each moment of cognition. Rather, it is the underlying capacity of the mind to know and to observe.’ Everyday...