Here bhikkhus, some misguided men learn the Dhamma–discourses, stanzas, expositions, verses, exclamations, sayings, birth stories, marvels, and answers to questions–but having learned the Dhamma, they do not examine the meaning of those teachings with wisdom....

and if you survive without reflecting, then you simply become an old degenerate.

The path to enlightenment is really very simple – all we need to do is stop cherishing ourself and learn to cherish others. All other spiritual realisations will naturally follow from this.

While the primary function of formal Buddhist meditation is to create the possibility of the experience of “being,” my work as a therapist has shown me that the demands of intimate life can be just...

Mindfulness, also called wise attention, helps us see what we’re adding to our experiences, not only during meditation sessions but also elsewhere.

Let the breath lead the way.

Amida’s unimpeded light is the sun of wisdom that destroys the mind of darkness.(Preface in Teaching, Practice, Faith, Enlightenment)

Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.

We are fragmented into so many different aspects. We don´t know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight...

There were so many beliefs which we had about the world, which then influenced everything, everything, about how we saw the world and interacted in the world and were with others. Everything. It was profound...

Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.

To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think about the past or responsibly plan for the future. The idea is simply not to allow yourself to get lost in regrets...

We carry out our lives assuming ourselves to be something substantial and unchanging, and we become deeply attach[ed] to this assumed self (this attachment is known in Sanskrit as ātma-grāha). But we attach to more...

If you’re stressing over happiness, you’re doing it wrong!

So I do fear death in the sense that I find the prospect of dying pretty scary. But I no longer fear that I will one day be annihilated and cease to exist.

So what is a good meditator? A good meditator meditates.

Why should we place Christ at the top and summit of the human race? Was he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha? Was he wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than...

Projections’ – attempts to blame all and sundry for my own past folly – will be found of no avail, and we must learn to withdraw them. None other is to blame for our body,...

And so Gotama wandered into the town to obtain alms, and the two Samanas recognized him only by his complete peacefulness of demeanor, by the stillness of his form, in which there was no seeking,...

He who fights is powerless, but he who loves is power itself.

Part of why I love these angry, straight, white punks is that they are stripping the dharma of its bullshit, and applying it to contexts and styles that, even if they aren’t mine, are at...

We are not interested in developing eternity or immortality, or in preventing being sick or being born. We are interested in doing something while we are alive, while we are breathing, while we can see...

You are as the yellow leaf.The messengers of death are at hand.You are to travel far away.What will you take with you?You are the lampTo lighten the way.Then hurry, hurry.When your light shinesWithout impurity or...

I tell my students not to be frightened; in the history of Buddhism-for 2,500 years-no one has broken or fractured a leg because of sitting in meditation.

Machik thus maintains that what is conventionally referred to as a “god” is in fact the positive nature of reflexive awareness that characterizes the full potential of the enlightened mind when it is unsullied by...

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.

They were the good old days. Don’t give up hope in the bad newdays, which will become then good old days. We appreciate Kennedy because he was killed; Martin Luther King was a great man....

Like water poured from one vessel to another, metta flows freely, taking the shape of each situation without changing its essence.

Vulnerability in the face of constant change is what we share, whatever our present condition.

To eliminate the inner turmoil we must focus our attention inward and act with loving kindness to ourselves—and each other.

O Brahmana, it is just like a mountain river, flowing far and swift, taking everything along with it; there is no moment, no instant, no second when it stops flowing, but goes on flowing and...

The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose;Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear.Make a hairbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart;If you want the...

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or to cry at the human predicament. Here we are with so much wisdom and tenderness, and—without even knowing it—we cover it over to protect ourselves from insecurity....

The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.

Birth is okay and death is okay, if we know that they are only concepts in our mind. Reality transcends both birth and death.

Now seen…now gone,The butterfly flits in and outThrough fence-hung flowers;But a life lived so close to themI envy…though it’s here and gone.

An outrageous instinct to love and be loved blinded your arms to lines of propriety––Women and Men, Christians and Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, white, black, red, brown. An outrageous instinct to love and be loved...

Our greatest happiness comes from the experience of love & compassion.

The virtues of free enterprise can become distorted by greed & delusion.

A close examination of the instructions in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta reveals that the meditator is never instructed to interfere actively with what happens in the mind. If a mental hindrance arises, for example, the task...

Here’s an example: someone says, “Master, please hand me the knife,” and he hands them the knife, blade first. “Please give me the other end,” he says. And the master replies, “What would you do...

We tend to view ourselves as this, lying in contradiction with everything that is not ourselves, that.

Zen is the period of time during which a person has true clarity of vision.

Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the...

Once you awaken, you will have no interest in judging those who sleep.

It is like a lighted torch whose flame can be distributed to ever so many other torches which people may bring along; and therewith they will cook food and dispel darkness, while the original torch...

When you blame, you open up a world of excuses, because as long as you’re looking outside, you miss the opportunity to look inside, and you continue to suffer.

In the first movement, our infancy as a species, we felt no separation from the natural world around us. Trees, rocks, and plants surrounded us with a living presence as intimate and pulsing as our...

I do feel I’m being respectful to Buddhism and martial arts with ‘Mortal Kombat.’

Dharma practice means physical hardship; it means that you shouldn’t be pansies about it. You should exert yourselves wholeheartedly to engage in the practice, so that it will affect your body, speech, and mind.