As I write this morning, children in the next yard are playing. I hear them making the sounds kids make when happy. They are not worried about the climate. Yet they will be. It’s inevitable.  In a recent survey, young people in countries around the world said they...

‘Dukkha is very profound; as we explore it through the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, we understand that being unawakened is itself dukkha. Dukkha, Cause, and Nirodha (Nirvana).’ Everyday Buddhism

‘At the heart of the Buddha’s message is the notion of the Middle Way — a path that avoids the extremes of indulgence in sensual pleasures on one side and severe asceticism on the other.’ Everyday Buddhism

‘There are ‘four virtues’ of perpetual happiness and purity. This is why it is said that the one who comes to meditate truly and correctly, must sit facing the innermost sanctuary of truth.’ Zen Master Hakuin

Myanmar was hit earlier today by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake — felt also in Thailand, China, India, and Vietnam. A quake of this size is of course never good, but as Amnesty International’s Myanmar expert Joe Freeman says, this “could not come at a worse time” for the...

‘Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is freed from incoming defilements. The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones discerns that as it actually is present.’ Bassui Tokushō

‘The significance of the Three Marks of Existence cannot be overstated. These truths about the nature of reality — impermanence, suffering, and not-self — are at the core of the Buddha’s teaching enlightenment.’ Everyday Buddhism

The other day I received an email regarding the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy, “a newly formed national organization of Buddhists from multiple lineages created in response to the ongoing threat to democracy.” The Coalition had crafted and issued a Call to Action —...

‘You must neither postulate a mind, nor try to compel a state of peace. That is what is called peace.’ Zen Master Niutou

What is enlightenment? This is often the first question people ask when they begin to explore Buddhism, because enlightenment is the culmination of the entire Buddhist path. Of his own enlightenment, the Buddha said, “Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness...