The goal of practice is not to pursue pleasure and avoid pain, but rather to experience both with full awareness, neither favoring one nor opposing the other. It is thus possible to experience mental pleasure or happiness while experiencing a…
Life is a series of mind moments, each one a new creation. Every moment we inherit something from our past, transform it in our present experience, and thereby seed the consequences of our future. —Andrew Olendzki, “A Tough But Not…
Being a slave to our concerns is like being in debt to them. When we’re in debt, we have no real freedom in our hearts. The more we pay off our debts, the more lighthearted we’ll feel. In the same…
Speech is a powerful force. But how much attention do we pay to our speech? . . . Do we actually bring some wisdom and sensitivity to our speaking? What is behind our speech, what motivates it? Does something really…
The gateway to compassion and lovingkindness is to be able to feel our own pain, and the pain of others. If we are able to open in this way, our hearts can melt, and the healing salve of compassion can…
Mass, energy, space, and time as they are conceived by the human mind have no existence apart from our conceptual awareness of them—no more than our dreams at night. All appearances exist only relative to the mind that experiences them,…
Frequently we discover that our minds do not rest in radiant contentment for our entire meditation session. Why not? Because we have been training for years in desiring, reaching, grasping, getting, and then wanting more, and then, of course, more—all…
Joy is not something we have to manufacture. It is already in us when we come into the world. We need only release the layers of contraction and fear that keep us from it. – James Baraz, “Lighten Up!”
Every moment in life is absolute in itself. That’s all there is. There is nothing other than this present moment; there is no past, there is no future; there is nothing but this. So when we don’t pay attention to…
As a simple experiment, the next time you have some wanting or desire in the mind, investigate what the wanting feels like and then notice how it feels when the wanting passes away. Given the great law of impermanence, it…