True humility comes from exchanging self with others, which is a blend of compassion and wisdom. As the great mind-training practitioner Geshe Langri Tangpa describes it: Whenever I associate with others May I view myself as the lowest of all. This is not a nebulous attitude but rooted in the clear understanding that cherishing a self that doesn’t exist is never going to work and that all the happiness there…
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Does how we view others come down to what we want out of life? If our main interest is in worldly enjoyments and achievements – for example we crave wealth or accolades – others can be in…
A guest article The Walk for Peace, which has captured the imaginations and hearts of millions of people, ends today in Washington DC. In this guest article, Jan Jemson describes this walk and then shares how it…
One of the things I’ve been thinking I’ll miss about Colorado is the endless space. It may be just “karmic wallpaper”, as a Buddhist nun friend helpfully put it; but the skies are huge, the windows are…
Some time has elapsed since I started talking about the emptiness of time, but there is only now, and now is the time. So here we go, carrying on from this: Wherever we go, there we are. …
Someone sent me an article this morning with this title, which I have shamelessly stolen, and the byline: A single act of kindness reminded me that, despite so much evidence to the contrary, the better angels of…
Hello everyone, happy holidays. Talking of which, I was contemplating this prayer the other day, one of the four immeasurables: May no one ever be separated from their happiness. This is often explained as referring to the…
Wrote this one Valentine’s Day, but it works every day. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! How’s it going?! Feeling happy?! Feeling loved? Or feeling unloved?! Feeling…
This is the latest episode of the Calm Clear Mind Podcast out of Dublin, Ireland, this time a conversation between two old friends and long-time…
The other day I was at a yard sale with my neighbor and friend, more like family actually, searching for stuff for his and his…
I am on the road again, this time to Glasgow. The tube was delayed into Heathrow by some undisclosed incident on the tracks, and after…
4.5 mins read Vajrayogini is a female enlightened Deity of Highest Yoga Tantra who is the manifestation of the wisdom of all the Buddhas. By…
8 mins & a video An old friend of mine, a naturopath, has had a lot of success in healing people simply by telling them…
How we treat the world’s animals—whether coldly or compassionately, selfishly or justly—is…
I’m not claiming to be any expert, but I love the meditation on the clarity…
One of the most significant meditations in Buddhism – arguably in the world! – is…
By the way, during that meditation I described on the meditation on the nature of the…
The other day I saw a little dude with his surfboard looking disappointedly at the ocean – it was clearly his first day of vacation…
8.5 mins read. Often when things go wrong in our lives, we cast about for someone to blame and/or conclude that life is unconscionably unfair.…
It might be tempting when faced with the day’s headlines — suffering, and more suffering — to go to the extremes of either freaking out…
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Society
In this most recent article, we saw how to view others as…
Impermanence
10 mins read This week (Sept 9-15) is suicide prevention awareness week.…
Self Confidence
To get my news, I have taken to watching the late night…
Buddha nature
Happy Buddha’s Enlightenment Day! April 15th is another big holy(i)day for Kadampa…