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"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 don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just...
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 don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just...
The great Indian teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj once said, "Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows." "I am nothing" does not mean that there is a bleak wasteland within. It does mean that with awareness we open to a clear, unimpeded space, without...
..at the Buddhist House late afternoon after a long journey involving a diversion as the A1 was closed by a horrible accident. (Cynthia SatNav - on my BlackBerry - was a great boon as the police hadn't marked all the diversionary route out, that not being a priority one can imagine, and I was on...
Devotion, scholarship, and meditation can all be empty rituals, and whether these devotional acts or any other practices are in fact Dharma depends solely upon one's motivation. . . . Our initial attempts at spiritual practice tend to be very self-conscious. We want to overcome the distortions of...
The core of Dharma practice is freeing oneself from the attachments of this life. It focuses on the deeper issue of gaining complete release from discontent by means of freeing our minds from the afflictions of confusion, attachment, and anger. In a broader sense, Dharma practice is concerned with...
While we may concentrate on one particular aspect of the path at a time, it is important to have an overall balance between the different aspects. Meditation should progress hand in hand with study, without either one being neglected. Having cleared away doubts intellectually, we should integrate...
WOLLONGONG! Yes, that was the mystery location of the Chinese temple in my other photos. I took the kids on a little overnight trip down there. We had planned to holiday a bit further afield but my husband was unable to take leave from work because he works in an area affected by the World...
Yesterday I was a guest, as a member of the Chaplaincy team at Northumbria University, at the Congregation at which Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate. As Buddhist Chaplain at Newcastle University, I was a member of the academic procession at two Congregations...
A single act of giving has a value beyond what we can imagine. So much of the spiritual path is expressed and realized in giving: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity; letting go of grasping, aversion, and delusion. To give is powerful. That is why the Buddha said that if we knew as he did,...
Training in compassion is a mental activity. But our mind should also be brought to the level where every action we take is influenced by compassion. That means engaging ourselves in compassion in action. ~ Gehlek Rinpoche
A couple of days ago, I blogged about Kyle Payne and male feminists. One of my main points was that, by poking around and reading some of Payne's writing, I felt that it was not surprising that someone who wrote that way would turn out to be an abusive individual. When someone becomes an ally of a...
Statement from Abbot Ryushin Paul Haller on the Fire at Tassajara Written by Abbot Ryushin Paul Haller photo by Renshin Bunce As the forest fire encroaches into Tassajara valley, a new reality appears: danger is nearby and our hopes and fears rise up accordingly. Of course the safety and well-being...
As wax melts near a lit wick and burns, it emits light near the tip of the candle. For the most part, this place from which light is emitted remains the same and appears as a fixed shape; it is this seemingly unchanging shape that we refer to as flame. That which is called I is similar to the flame....
Central to the Buddha's teaching is the doctrine of anatman: "not-self." This does not deny that the notion of an "I" works in the everyday world. In fact, we need a solid, stable ego to function in society. However, "I" is not real in an ultimate sense. It is a "name": a fictional construct that...
There's a new website here with different sections including quotations, solutions and a blog
And another challenge:When you are stuck in a traffic jam on the Los Angeles freeway, can you look at all the other drivers, particularly the ones who are weaving in and out of lanes, and see them as the Buddha? In a work situation, if you have a particularly cantankerous boss who you think is a...
The Buddha's teaching is all about understanding suffering - its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. When we contemplate suffering, we find we are contemplating desire, because suffering and desire are the same thing. Desire can be compared to fire. If we grasp fire, what happens?...
The first Zen master to teach in the United States was a man named Soyen Shaku of the Rinzai school of Buddhism. He is quoted as saying, “My heart burns like fire but my eyes are as cold as dead ashes.” Those were profound words considering he was afflicted with neither acid-reflux nor acute...
Four Noble Truths 1. Suffering exists 2. Suffering arises from attachment to desires 3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases 4. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path Hindrances 1. Sensuous lust 2. Aversion and ill will 3. Sloth and torpor 4. Restlessness...
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