When judging the results of your own actions, you can’t simply take your own ideas of ‘what works’ as a trustworthy standard. After all, you can easily side with your greed, aversion, or delusion, setting your standards too low. So…
The thoughts are not the problem. Thoughts are the nature of the mind. The problem is that we identify with them. – Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, “No Excuses”
Buddha was not interested in the elements comprising human beings, nor in metaphysical theories of existence. He was more concerned about how he himself existed in this moment. That was his point. Bread is made from flour. How flour becomes…
When we place our full attention on the breath, we pull ourselves out of the past, away from the future, and directly into the present moment. —Lauren Krauze, “Breathe Easy”
It’s imperative for us to understand that spiritual practice is not just something we do when we’re sitting in meditation or when we’re on retreat. Failing to see everything as an opportunity for practice is a setup for frustration and…
At times our tendency is to indulge in sadness—we don’t want to get rid of it, we want more. But there are many other situations in which we can see clearly how much energy is invested in trying to get…
Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It’s the kind of place we usually want to avoid. . . . When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. —Pema Chödrön, “The In-between State”
When you maintain the straightforward frankness of your own mind as it comes to life each instant, even without effort, even without training, you are beautifully born each instant. You die with each instant, and go on to be born…
If we do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another, the work we have done in one often doesn’t continue to build as we change to the next. It is as if we were to…
If you are new to meditation practice, you may well think that you have no choice about how you experience suffering. You may have some problem from your past or in your current situation that seems as though it can…