No one should ever despair because the entrance to his or her chosen career path is clogged. There is an ancient saying: “The persistent drip wears through stone.

People who are diagnosed as having “generalized anxiety disorder” are afflicted by three major problems that many of us experience to a lesser extent from time to time. First and foremost, says Rapgay, the natural...

The earth is black in front of the cliff, and no orchids grow.Creepers crawl in the brown mud by the path.Where did the birds of yesterday fly?To what other mountain did the animals go?Leopards and...

Life gives you exactly what you need to awaken.

The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief. Finally somebody told the truth. Suffering is part of life, and we...

Being vegetarian here also means that we do not consume dairy and egg products, because they are products of the meat industry. If we stop consuming, they will stop producing. Only collective awakening can create...

Religion is inevitably something that demands faith, or belief from us. Given the variety of forms of religion, it is natural that definitions of faith are also various. One interpretation, based on our discussion thus...

The source to low self-esteem is the lack of control you feel you have in your life. If you spend your life competing with others, trying to make right the wrongs done to you, or...

The thinking brain influences the body’s responses and it makes a neat little loop.

The most important step in developing skillful speech is to think before speaking.

Old Soul” came from in the first place.

When a builder builds he clears the ground for his new foundations. Then he sees that the basic structure will support the whole. Should we not also clear the mind – at least that part...

…for you know that soft is stronger than hard, water stronger than rock, love stronger than force.” Vesadeva to Siddartha

This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not,” the Buddha taught. All the conditions have come together in such a way that we are where we are, and we are what...

What a miracle, that all we have to do to be beautifully loving creatures is just relax and allow.

Whether we eat, sleep, work, play, whatever we do life contains dissatisfaction, pain. If we enjoy pleasure, we are afraid to lose it; we strive for more and more pleasure or try to contain it....

These… things, householder, are welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world:Long life is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in the world.Beauty is welcome, agreeable, pleasant, & hard to obtain in...

To seek the self, one must first have a clear idea of what one is looking for. Thus, some meditation manuals advise actively cultivating the sense of self, despite the fact that this sense is...

As in other Buddhist Tantric techniques, recommended preliminaries for these practices include developing skill at both calm-abiding (zhi gnas; śamatha) and insight meditation (lhag mthong; vipaśyanā). As in earlier Buddhist teachings, many Chöd dehadāna practices...

Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.

If one does not make an ego out of gender, one would still know whether one is a man or a woman, gay, straight, bisexual, transgender—whatever else we may think of. But those identities need...

All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how. It is out of ignorance that any of us cause suffering, for ourselves or for others

Through meditation we come to know that we are dying & being reborn in every moment.

Just calling one’s practice “approach and accomplishment” and staying in retreat for years will produce nothing but hardship. Completing hundreds of millions of mantras will not even bring the warmth of the ordinary qualities that...

Two ideas are psychologically deep-rooted in man: self-protection and self-preservation. For self-protection man has created God, on whom he depends for his own protection, safety and security, just as a child depends on its parent....

The Buddha’s original teaching is essentially a matter of four points — the Four Noble Truths:1. Anguish is everywhere.2. We desire permanent existence of ourselves and for our loved ones, and we desire to prove...

Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there’s a big disappointment, we don’t know if that’s the end of the story. It may just be the beginning...

We know very well that we have ancestors. But our ancestors are not only human. We have animal ancestors; we have plant ancestors; and we have mineral ancestors. Our human ancestors are still very young....

Love has no meaning without understanding

Tightly held by rocksThrough winter, the ice todayBegins to come undone:A way-seeker also is the water,Melting, murmuring from the moss.

Peace can be found within, no matter the external circumstances.

People in the midst of losing their patience are certainly experiencing as aspect of dukkha.

The term satipaṭṭhāna can be explained as a compound of sati, “mindfulness” or “awareness”, and upaṭṭhāna, with the u of the latter term dropped by vowel elision. The Pāli term upaṭṭhāna literally means “placing near”,...

If we get rid of all wishful thinking and dubious metaphysical speculations, we can hardly doubt that – at a time not too distant – each one of us will simply cease to be. It...

Society is a collection of selves perpetuating their myth.

Yes, you can create your reality. Once you free yourself from the negative effects of karma. I know it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between free will and karma. Focus upon your free will and...

it is impossible to build one’s own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings.

Ultimately humanity is one, and this small planet is our only home. If we’re to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to experience a vivid sense of universal altruism and compassion.

Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’...

When you catch yourself slipping into a pool of negativity, notice how it derives from nothing other than resistance to the current situation.

Of course, even when you see the world as a trap and posit a fundamental separation between liberation of self and transformation of society, you can still feel a compassionate impulse to help its suffering...

Ah Buddha, you boastful charlatan. You may have learned nothing after 6 years of suffering, but then what of 7 years? What of 17? What might you have learned from a lifetime of pain? […]...

From the Buddhist perspective, the only lasting way to bring about change is for people themselves to change.

Forgiveness that is insincere, forced or premature can be more psychologically damaging than authentic bitterness & rage.

Once a Buddha, always a Buddha, Sam. Dust off some of your old parables. You have about fifteen minutes.’ Sam held out his hand. “Give me some tobacco and a paper.

Only those few who are able to surpass their fear of death completely can fully experience the highest forms of life; not the mundane life of the mortal, but the godly life of the resurrected.

Impartial, compassionate, brave, and understanding…these are the traits that come with putting the Noble Eightfold Path into practice. By following this path, anyone can become the kind of leader the Buddha hoped to see—a leader...

I don’t know where I’m going on this path. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. You had to be lost, before you could be found. These are the truths. You had to...

Without giving up hope—that there’s somewhere better to be, that there’s someone better to be—we will never relax with where we are or who we are.

To win or lose often depends on set parameters. Expand the bounds of what is possible, and you may come out the true winner, outside the confines of its defining.