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…
Just In
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…
Give me a dollar for the number of times I’ve been asked in the last ten or so years, “Is there an app for that?”…
Meditation is all about changing from within. Usually we’re busy trying to change things out there, but in meditation we go inward to look much…
We all need to be able to let go of our unhappiness. This, to put it mildly, is a Very Useful Skill – unless of…
The long read!!! Sorry about that. Big subject. What can Buddhists do? (Jul 2022: Wrote this before all the heat waves, fires, drought, melting glaciers,…
Buddha’s teachings on Sutra and Tantra are all designed to solve our suffering and center us in the solution. This is quite a big subject,…
(You may want to read this article first to get up to scratch. I’ve divided the article up into two parts to make it easier to…
Impermanence
All that happens is here and now. If we are elsewhere, we…