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Life is stranger than fiction
On a recent Saturday evening, I was invited to the birthday party of a dear old friend, a party filled with amiable characters from all parts of the world. Among me and my friends were S the ebullient New Ager, J her elegant French mom, I the dear Danish healer, H the kind Texan host, [...]
Handling change
Quantum mechanics and laws of physics alone show that nothing stays the same, from the smallest to the biggest thing. Subatomic particles are whizzing about in your body and even the seemingly solid walls around you. The blood never stops rushing through your veins. The earth never stops journeying. Our galaxy is flying away from [...]
Does compassion make us happy or sad?
Compassion is the fuel of spiritual progress, but is it a sad or a happy state of mind? The Buddhist scriptures all say it is a peaceful, happy mind, but how does it feel in our own experience? How is it even possible to be happy or calm when caring about the horrible suffering of [...]
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Share in others’ happiness or their pain
Two two main practices of a Bodhisattva are compassion and rejoicing. If you think about it, that pretty much covers every variety of human experience — people are either experiencing suffering or misfortune, in which case they are worthy of compassion, or else they are experiencing happiness or good fortune, in which case they give [...]
Why can’t I be happy?! Buddha’s reply.
We all want to be happy, isn’t that the truth?! In fact, we all want to be happy all the time; it’s the way living beings are wired. But are we happy all the time? And if not, given our wish and the 24/7 effort we put into it, why not? Buddha Shakyamuni and many [...]
Giving ourselves permission to be happy
Sometimes our lives are so busy helping others that we get out of the habit of letting go and taking any time to recharge our batteries, and end up thinking it is too selfish to take “me-time” in any case. This ends up ironically, being the selfish choice if we’re not careful because it undermines [...]
DON’T PANIC
The great Indian Buddhist Master Shantideva is famous for his practical advice on dealing patiently with problems: If something can be remedied Why be unhappy about it? And if there is no remedy for it, There is still no point in being unhappy. Here is a flow chart to illustrate this seemingly unarguable point (sorry, [...]
Tara Day (article has moved)
Dear Kadampa Life Subscribers, to find this article on Tara Day (December 8 2011), please click here. Something got muddled up in the dates, probably me But do go to the article and enjoy it and leave your comments there! And press the gold stars, and share it with your friends, as always I really [...]
Happiness/Freedom ~ Andrea, the real deal
“How do you tell everyone you love how important they were to you when you were alive?” Andrea Walker, August 20, 2011 Last week, August 21st, I found this blog: Happiness/Freedom. I had in fact come across it a few months ago but didn’t have time that day to read it at any length, and [...]
Lessons learnt from Thanksgiving 2011
Hello dear reader, I hope you enjoyed giving thanks somewhere yesterday, officially or not… I had three invitations in the end, so took up the first offer, which was a slap-up meal in the clubhouse at the old people’s mobile home park where my good friends Iben and Harlow live. I say “old”, but anyone [...]
Oh woe is me! How to stop distracting ourselves from happiness.
Probably, as mentioned in this previous article, the worst fault of self-cherishing is how it undermines our wish and capability to love and help others. I have a couple of embarrassing examples of this from just now, which I have summoned up the courage to share with you below … As my teacher says in [...]
The kindness of others — a pelican’s story
Here is a short tale involving one pelican and five human beings — an illustration of a world working properly. My friend was walking over the Clearwater bridge at dusk when a drunken man on a bicycle stopped her, almost toppling off as he waved an arc with his arm: “There ish a shick pelican [...]
