“It’s not how many millions of mantras we say, how many hundreds of thousands of prostrations we do. The point is, how do we do it, with what motivation? How are we dealing with things which happen to us moment to moment, day after day after day? This is the point. Our fundamental mind, what... Continue Reading →
We could all use more humor in our lives. Having a sense of humor doesn’t mean laughing and being cheerful all the time. It means seeing the illusory nature of things—and seeing how, in this illusory life, we are always bumping into the very things we meticulously try to avoid. Humor allows us to see... Continue Reading →
In our practice and in our life, working with all the challenges is an ongoing journey, not just a one-shot deal. When we meditate over a long period of time and make a commitment to meditation as an ongoing part of our life, we discover that meditation provides us with a path to work with... Continue Reading →
“There is no one thing that can make us happy. When we expect stability from the world of things we make ourselves vulnerable to disappointment. When things change, a they inevitably do, we think the phenomenal world has turned on us, our bodies disappoint us , the pleasant feeling we got from our meditation session... Continue Reading →
The attitude that results from the Buddhist orientation and practice is quite different from the "mistake mentality." One actually experiences mind as fundamentally pure, that is, healthy and positive, and "problems" as temporary and superficial defilements. Such a viewpoint does not quite mean getting rid of problems, but rather shifting one's focus. Problems are seen... Continue Reading →
When a problem arises - a death , a sickness , some other type of loss , or even a hurtful argument. It is not only painful but confusing. It is like being lost in dense and dangerous jungle. When one is lost in the forest, one should climb to the top of a tall... Continue Reading →
If one of your possessions breaks, you would not continuously walk around holding the item every day, but instead you would put it down until you are ready to fix it. Likewise, if there is a problem in your life, try not to continuously worry about it. But instead, put it down, and return to... Continue Reading →
It is so basic in us to feel that things should go well for us, and that if we start to feel depressed, lonely, or inadequate, there’s been some kind of mistake or we’ve lost it. In reality, when you feel depressed, lonely, betrayed, or any unwanted feelings, this is an important moment on the... Continue Reading →
When we start being too impressed by the results of our work, we slowly come to the erroneous conviction that life is one large scoreboard where someone is listing the points to measure our worth. And before we are fully aware of it, we have sold our soul to the many grade-givers. That means we... Continue Reading →
One of the most difficult things about hard times is that we often feel that we are going through them alone. But we are not alone. In fact, your life itself is only possible because of the thousands of generations before you, survivors who have carried the lamp of humanity through difficult times from one... Continue Reading →
In a Buddhist sense, real freedom is not about having the ability to act on any impulse that comes into our mind. True freedom means not being enslaved by anger, clinging, craving, resentment, spite, and so on. True freedom is being able to direct our mind to any virtuous object without any interference whatsoever from... Continue Reading →
"In Tibetan there's this interesting word: ye tang che. The YE part means "totally, completely" and the rest of it means "exhausted." Altogether ye tang che means totally tired out. We might say "totally fed up" It describes an experience of compete hopelessness, of completely giving up hope. This is an important point. This is... Continue Reading →
Imagine you are running late for work and rush to your car only to find a flat tyre. How would you feel? Probably many shades of negative emotions will arise from anger to the universe conspiring against you. Now imagine, you wake up in the morning to find you won millions of dollars in the... Continue Reading →
The greater the sanity we achieve, the more we find there are problems. As we become more sharp and more perceptive, therefore we begin to perceive specks of dust much more vividly. In such cases, please don’t panic. It’s the result of the sharpening of our prajna, our intellect. The more we tie up the... Continue Reading →
So we need to begin by reducing our self-focus and self-important thoughts. To do so, we remind ourselves that we aren't the only ones who want to be happy - everyone wants to be happy. Though others seek happiness, they may not understand how to go about accomplishing it, whereas if we have some understanding... Continue Reading →
Our life’s work is to use what we have been given to wake up. If there were two people who were exactly the same—same body, same speech, same mind, same mother, same father, same house, same food, everything the same—one of them could use what he has to wake up and the other could use... Continue Reading →
When you look at a tree in a storm, you see that the top of the tree is very unstable and vulnerable. The wind can break the smaller branches at any time. But when you look down at the trunk of the tree, you have a different impression. You see that the tree is very... Continue Reading →
Scrambling for security has never brought anything but momentary joy. It’s like changing the position of our legs in meditation. Our legs hurt from sitting cross-legged, so we move them. And then we feel, “Phew! What a relief!” But two and a half minutes later, we want to move them again. We keep moving around... Continue Reading →
When you refrain from habitual thoughts and behavior, the uncomfortable feelings will still be there. They don't magically disappear. Over the years, I've come to call resting with the discomfort the detox period, because when you don't act on your habitual patterns, it's like giving up an addiction. You're left with the feelings you were... Continue Reading →
The nature of the path is more like an expedition or exploration than following a road that already has been built. When people hear that they should follow the path, they might think that a ready-made system exists and that individual expressions are not required. They may think that one does not actually have to... Continue Reading →
