Category Buddhism

Not being aware of your own faults is the greatest fault. But if you are aware and make adjustments immediately, you can then be faultless at all times and everywhere. —Master Sheng-Yen, “How to Be Faultless”

If we don’t have motivation, of course we’re going to sit there feeling bored, irritated, and in pain. With motivation, we can dedicate our lives: ‘I am here, fully present, and I vow to wake up fully so that all…

Our entire lives are nothing but a chain of moments in which we perceive one sight, taste, smell, touch, sound, feeling, or thought after another. Outside of this process, nothing else happens. —Cynthia Thatcher, “What’s So Great About Now?”

We are caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality. . . . Strangely enough I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought…

Coming back to conscious breathing will give you a nourishing break. It will also make your mindfulness stronger, so when you want to look into your anxiety or other emotions you’ll have the calm and concentration to be able to…

Concentration and mindfulness are distinctly different functions. They each have their role to play in meditation, and the relationship between them is definite and delicate. Concentration is often called one-pointedness of mind. It consists of forcing the mind to remain…

The Buddha encouraged us to think of the good things done for us by our parents, by our teachers, friends, whomever; and to do this intentionally, to cultivate it, rather than just letting it happen accidentally. – Ajahn Sumedho, “The…

When we are able to fully appreciate the basic activities of eating and drinking, we discover an ancient secret, the secret of how to become content and at ease. Jan Chozen Bays, “Mindful Eating”

Even when awareness appears to be lost because, once again, the “me” has assumed center stage, there is awareness of that. Then awareness remembers itself and knows itself as the presence of everything that arises. —Joel Agee, “Not Found, Not…

The only way one really gets any of the most important benefits of meditation practice is by giving up on the notion that there are any benefits to meditation practice. —Brad Warner, “Goalless Practice”