Love creates a communion with life. Love expands us, connects us, sweetens us, ennobles us.Love springs up in tender concern, it blossoms into caring action. It makes beauty out of all we touch. In any...

The first level of practice is illuminated by the qualities of courage and renunciation.

Meditation practice is neither holding on nor avoiding; it is a settling back into the moment, opening to what is there.

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

We need to learn how to honor and use a practice for as long as it serves us—which in most cases is a very long time—but to look at it as just that, a vehicle,...

There are several different kinds of painful feelings that we might experience, and learning to distinguish and relate to these feelings of discomfort or pain is an important part of meditation practice, because it is...

When the stories of our life no longer bind us, we discover within them something greater. We discover that within the very limitations of form, of our maleness and femaleness, of our parenthood and our...

Let go of the battle. Breathe quietly and let it be. Let your body relax and your heart soften. Open to whatever you experience without fighting.

Samadhi doesn’t just come of itself; it takes practice.

Two qualities are at the root of all meditation development: right effort and right aim—arousing effort to aim the mind toward the object.

The Third Precept, to refrain from sexual misconduct, reminds us not to act out of sexual desire in such a way as to cause harm to another… The spirit of this precept asks us to...

The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to stop the war, not by our force of will, but organically, through understanding an gradual training.

Where we tended to be judgmental, we became more judgmental of ourselves in our spiritual practice.

In sitting on the meditation cushion and assuming the meditation posture, we connect ourselves with the present moment in this body and on this earth.

As we encounter new experiences with a mindful and wise attention, we discover that one of three things will happen to our new experience: it will go away, it will stay the same, or it...

There are many ways that I have hurt and harmed others, have betrayed or abandoned them, caused them suffering, knowingly or unknowingly, out of my pain, fear, anger, and confusion. Let yourself remember and visualize...

There are many ways up the mountain and each of us must choose a practice that feels true to our heart.

To learn to concentrate we must choose a prayer or meditation and follow this path with commitment and steadiness, a willingness to work with our practice day after day, no matter what arises.

I would like to ofer some exercises that can help us use the Five Precepts to cultivate and strengthen mindfulness. It is best to choose one of these exercises and work with it meticulously for...

But forgiveness is the act of not putting anyone out of your heart, even those who are acting out of deep ignorance or out of confusion and pain.

The focusing of attention on the breath is perhaps the most universal of the many hundreds of meditation subjects used worldwide.

When we struggle to change ourselves we, in fact, only continue the patterns of self-judgement and aggression. We keep the war against ourselves alive.

Taking the one seat describes two related aspects of spiritual work. Outwardly, it means selecting one practice and teacher among all the possibilities, and inwardly, it means having the determination to stick with that practice...

To understand ourselves and our life is the point of insight meditation: to understand and to be free.

In the end, just three things matter:How well we have livedHow well we have lovedHow well we have learned to let go

As we follow a genuine path of practice, our sufferings may seem to increase because we no longer hide from them or from ourselves. When we do not follow the old habits of fantasy and...

True emptiness is not empty, but contains all things. The mysterious and pregnant void creates and reflects all possibilities. From it arises our individuality, which can be discovered and developed, although never possessed or fixed.

If we are engaged in actions that cause pain and conflict to ourselves and others, it is impossible for the mind to become settled, collected, and focused in meditation; it is impossible for the heart...

As surely as there is a voyage away, there is a journey home.

Through practice, gently and gradually we can collect ourselves and learn how to be more fully with what we do.

Breathing meditation can quiet the mind, open the body, and develop a great power of concentration.

Skill in concentrating and steadying the mind is the basis for all types of meditation.

In our charade with ourselves we pretend that our war is not really war. We have changed the name of the War Department to the Defense Department and call a whole class of nuclear missiles...

A factor that greatly supports the opening of energy in practice is exercise and care of the physical body.

No amount of meditation, yoga, diet, and reflection will make all of our problems go away, but we can transform our difficulties into our practice until little by little they guide us on our way.

In Buddhist practice, the outward and inward aspects of taking the one seat meet on our meditation cushion.

If you put a spoonful of saltin a cup of waterit tastes very salty.If you put a spoonful of saltin a lake of fresh waterthe taste is still pure and clear.Peace comes when our hearts...

Yet I knew that spiritual practice is impossible without great dedication, energy, and commitment.

Meditation is a vehicle for opening to the truth of this impermanence on deeper and deeper levels.

The entire teaching of Buddhism can be summed up in this way: Nothing is worth holding on to.