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...

The human brain is incredible in its capacity to heal and rewire itself. The human brain can be shaped and trained to be more resilient, calm, compassionate and alert—we can condition ourselves to be successful....

…there is something very vital happening when we breathe—without it we die—but trying to speed it up, force it, grasp it, push it away or control it tends to get in the way. As in...

Although social and personal circumstances will play their part in contributing to how an individual suffers, in Buddhist thought blame is seen as a “poison” that will only lead to negative actions and will do...

To the degree we give power to anything outside ourselves we become powerless

Feel better, work better.

Whether we are feasting or fasting or somewhere in between, food should have a sacred role in our lives. It can be something we sacrifice, something we savor, something we share, and through it all...

In any given situation there will always be more dumb people than smart people. We ain’t many!

I was there!”-surely that is the answer to God’s question. For no matter how the universe came into being, most of the atoms in these fleeting assemblies that we think of as our bodies have...

In a situation of potential conflict, let compassion guide you.

The true self is that which is in touch with reality. The false self is the aspects of your personality that are adapted to threats and no longer consciously recognizes either the adaptation or the...

Lao Tze’s vision is compatible with the Positive Paradigm of Change. In fact, placing the language of his passages into the levels of the Wheel serves to clarify his vision. The model is therefore shown...

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

I could not see beauty until I held hands with chaos in silence.

Vipassana meditation is an ongoing creative purification process. Observation of the moment-to-moment experience cleanses the mental layers, one after another.

The experience of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral is the consequences of perception.

Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.

The mind which is created quick to love, is responsive to everything that is pleasing, soon as by pleasure it is awakened into activity. Your apprehensive faculty draws an impression from a real object, and...

Think of the old cliché about the mind being ‘an excellent servant but a terrible master’. This, like many clichés, so lame & banal on the surface, actually expresses a great & terrible truth.

Mindfulness allows you to face the past with courage, whether it is scarred with pain or caressed with joy, and it gently holds you in the safe haven of the present without allowing you to...

One practical way to do this is to look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them of just your thought about them. Sometimes our thoughts act like dream glasses. When...

You have the ability to control your thoughts.

There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, everyone of them sufficient

Desire I think has less to do with possession than with participation, the will to involve oneself in the body of the world, in the principle of things expressing itself in splendid specificity, a handful...

With mindfulness there is more to unlearn than there is to learn.

The simple act of being completely attentive & present to another person is an act of love, and it fosters unshakeable well-being.

While you’ll feel compelled to charge forward it’s often a gentle step back that will reveal to you where you and what you truly seek.

The sage is still not because he takes stillness to be good and therefore is still. The ten thousand things are insufficient to distract his mind – that is the reason he is still.

Mindful living is an art. You do not have to be a monk or living in a monastery to practice mindfulness. You can practice it anytime, while driving your car or doing housework. Driving in...

Like some homeopathic cure, our very sense of imprisonment can be a step toward liberation. We need not rebel against our temporally determined roles. Merely to recognize them is to limit their power over us....

When we teach a child patience we offer them the gift of a dignified life.

Our minds of infinite possibilities have been plowed, seeded and cultivated by every word, institution and sacred belief we hold dear, to produce a foul harvest of exclusion, apathy, brute domination and death.

Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time”.

With mind distracted, never thinking, “Death is coming,”To slave away on the pointless business of mundane life,And then to come out empty–it is a tragic error. (116)trans by Robert Thurman

Global citizenship means simply being willing to focus on the game, to notice the world and the people in it. It does not mean noticing your world, but the world. It means being conscious of...

Cooking gives you the opportunity to meet the things you eat. You can touch each carrot or olive and get to know its smell and texture.You can feel its weight and notice its color and...

The result of mindful awareness is the development of our virtues, which are the basic positive building blocks of our life.

The is a secret for greater self-control, the science points to one thing: the power of paying attention.

The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.

Embracing a healing presence requires you to just be in the moment together.

Contemplating the goodness within ourselves is a classical meditation, done to bring light, joy, and rapture to the mind. In contemporary times this practice might be considered rather embarrassing, because so often the emphasis is...

With attachment all that seems to exist is just me & that object I desire.

Create inclusion – with simple mindfulness that others might have a different reality from your own.

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things...

How often are you aware of your surroundings, really aware? And how often are you merely reacting in the same automatic way as you do in dreams?

May your sleep be your death, and your wakefulness be your heaven.

A modern definition of equanimity: cool. This refers to one whose mind remains stable & calm in all situations.

Work, he tells them one night, is a kind of prayer.

Mindfulness (present-moment awareness) is deliberately focusing our attention on our thoughts, emotions, feelings, sensations and mental activity without losing awareness of what is happening in the present moment. It is essentially being in a state...

Much of the time the mind is wandering, either drawn to focus, ruminate, or push away unpleasant experiences, or chasing after stuff we like. But if we don’t practise being still, we are prone to...