Perspective is as simple as answering this question: If I had 5 months to live would I experience this problem differently?

I have found that we need to maintain relationships with all spheres of society: the local community, politicians from all parties, business leaders, artists, and farmers….We don’t favor one kind of person over another, or...

To be mindful entails examining the path we are traveling & making choices that alleviate suffering & bring happiness to ourselves & those around us.

He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

Of course the thinking mind must sooner or later be controlled, developed, and supplied with the force of will for a break-through to non-thinking, a direct experience of non-duality. But at what stage?

Merchant: ‘So you have lived on the possessions of others?’Saddhartha: ‘Apparently. The merchant also lives on the possession of others.’Merchant: ‘Well spoken…

Clarity is like casting light. Clarity allows us to see better and eases the path of understanding. And just as one light source need not deny the illumination of another but can add to it,...

Sometimes, sitting there on the cushion failing to watch your breath, it can feel like you’re the only weirdo weird enough to be wasting your time in this way. But you’re not! There are generations...

I sit down and say, and I run all my friends and relatives and enemies one by one in this, without entertaining any angers or gratitudes or anything, and I say, like ‘Japhy Ryder, equally...

Greater than all the joysOf heaven and earth,Greater still than dominionOver all the worlds,Is the joy of reaching the stream.

Retreating from the world will not liberate you. Happiness is not found in a secluded forest hut or an isolated cave. Enlightenment comes when you connect to the world. Only when you truly connect with...

If there is destruction of hope, there is freedom from gods [lha]; if there is destruction of fear, there is freedom from spirits [‘dre, demons].

On the first day of November last year, sacred to many religious calendars but especially the Celtic, I went for a walk among bare oaks and birch. Nothing much was going on. Scarlet sumac had...

I grow into these mountains like a moss. I am bewitched. The blinding snow peaks and the clarion air, the sound of earth and heaven in the silence, the requiem birds, the mythic beasts, the...

We can understand the inherent radiance & purity of our minds by understanding metta. Like the mind, metta is not distorted by what it encounters.

Every single moment is expressive of the truth of our lives when we know how to look.

It is the nature of the Kali Yuga that most human beings are now held back from spiritual liberation due to the gravity of inertia, apathy and laziness, (known in Sankrit as the quality of...

Chöd is conventionally and misleadingly seen as analogous to, if not derived from, shamanic initiatory dismemberment visions, as well as dualistic anti-body ascetic practices. Two of the elements most commonly referenced by authors in their...

When no discriminating thoughts arise,the old mind ceases to exist.When thought objects vanish,the thinking-subject vanishes,as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.Things are objects because of the subject;the mind is such because of things.Understand the relativity...

Throughout my life, until this very moment, whatever virtue I have accomplished, including any benefit that may come from this book, I dedicate to the welfare of all beings.May the roots of suffering diminish. May...

Khi đọc ‘Kiều’, nghe những đau khổ và chán chường như thế, ta không thấy dễ chịu trong lòng. Nhưng chúng ta đ u phải chỉ đi tìm sự dễ chịu. Chúng ta đi tìm...

When we are meditating in a haunted graveyard, or even in our rooms, frightening external and internal appearances may arise during Chöd practice. If this happens, check the two ‘superstitions’—the external, frightening appearance, and the...

Today’s satori:Such a change of mind wouldNot exist withoutMy lifelong habit of havingMy mind immersed in blossoms.

If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.

Accepting the reality of change gives rise to equanimity.

The venerable teachers, philosophers & spiritual practitioners throughout history have concluded that the greatest happiness we can experience comes from the development of an open, loving heart.

Recollection of death also serves as a useful preparation for the time when one actually has to face death. As the concluding exercise among the body contemplations, a regular recollection of death can lead to...

The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is simply to release any images and emotions.

The very fact that you can observe this thinking mind is proof that you are not this thinking mind.

The object of Zen is not to kill all feelings and become anesthetized to pain and fear. The object of Zen is to free us to scream loudly and fully when it is time to...

A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.

True change is within; leave the outside as it is.

Greater in battlethan the man who would conquera thousand-thousand men,is he who would conquerjust one —himself.Better to conquer yourselfthan others.When you’ve trained yourself,living in constant self-control,neither a deva nor gandhabba,nor a Mara banded with Brahmas,could...

Courage is often associated with aggression, but instead should be seen as a willingness to act from the heart.

Since beginners can only remain in contact with the object of observation for short periods, initially one should meditate in brief sessions even eighteen times a day; in due course stability will be achieved of...

To produce a primary [karmic] cause which is potentially capable of having an effect, three things are necessary: intention, the actual action, and then satisfaction.

As long as we’re in a state of confusion, overwhelmed by the three conflicting emotions, trapped in cyclic existence, we’re not happy and we can’t benefit sentient beings. Even though we think we might be...

Sometimes kindness is stepping aside, letting go of our need to be right & just being happy for someone.

No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.

The left-hand path adept seeks to liberate him/herself from passive subjection to the illusory nature of Maya, thus freeing the consciousness from the binds of self-created delusion.

The Four Noble Truths are pragmatic rather than dogmatic. They suggest a course of action to be followed rather than a set of dogmas to be believed. The four truths are prescriptions for behavior rather...

Nobody ever gets to nirvana without going through samsara. Nobody ever gets to heaven, without going through hell. The center of all things, the truth, is surrounded by demons.

It is only when we begin to relax with ourselves that meditation becomes a transformative process. Only when we relate with ourselves without moralizing, without harshness, without deception, can we let go of harmful patterns....

Letting go takes a lot of courage sometimes. But once you let go, happiness comes very quickly. You won’t have to go around search for it.

It seems the guys who are best at sex approach it with the serenity of a Buddhist monk. They are never going to beg for it and when the time is right (and all signs...

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

Separating the God question from Buddhism does not make Buddhists atheists—within silence lies mystery. That doesn’t mean, however, we should infer from this acknowledgement of the mystery a nod one way or another on the...

We all have issues & we have usually come by them honestly.

To forgive does not mean to forget.

In Buddhism, there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when you’re tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh...