Articles

Explore teachings on a wide variety of Dharma subjects—from mindfulness meditation practices to Buddhist psychological insights for dealing with difficult emotions—that will help guide you on your spiritual journey.

Living an Authentic Life

We all experience moments when we act or speak in an inauthentic way. We want others to like us or to think we’re smart, so we present a false persona. Or we do it because we feel unsafe or we want something really badly. It can be truly painful when this happens.

Gratitude in Daily Life

Cultivating thankfulness for being part of life blossoms into a feeling of being blessed, not in the sense of winning the lottery, but in a more refined appreciation for the interdependent nature of life. It also elicits feelings of generosity, which create further joy. Gratitude can soften a heart that has

Are You the Judging, Comparing, or Fixing Type?

How we meet each moment of life determines our well-being. But when we are caught in judging, comparing, or fixing, our worldview contracts and we have fewer options for responding to the present moment.

Working Mindfully with Anger

You can feel anger toward another or yourself. Your anger can be justified or unjustified. If your anger is justified, you’ve got two possibilities: You can either do something about it, or you can’t. Therefore, there’s no cause for melodrama, which simply

The Challenges & Rewards of Commitment

In order to move beyond your fear and fully commit to something—whether it’s your spiritual practice, a relationship, or your career—you must first evaluate what is worthy of your commitment. This is where

Where’s My Reward?

Just because we are doing well in our spiritual practice doesn’t mean that we are going to notice a measurable change in our “happiness.” It is possible to find happiness through renunciation, surrender, and acceptance but, in fact, some people are by nature happier than others.

Freedom from Wanting More

Wanting more is a phenomenon of our time, a reflection of the way we live, and yet it’s something that is very seldom recognized as being a phenomenon. It conditions our behavior without our realizing it. We never notice that it often precedes our emotions or actions.

Knowing Regret

Regret can be triggered by something you did or didn’t do, something another person did or didn’t do, or some combination of these. You may be clinging to memories of something bad that happened to you or to regret over some action you took. Bad memories or deep sorrow

Fundamental Dharma Teachings

In your study of the dharma, you will encounter numerous lists, which the Buddha created to make his teachings accessible and memorable. The lists I’ve included here are some of the basic ones, which are fundamental to your comprehension of the dharma.

The Four Noble Truths

All things are constantly changing, even what is most precious to you. You know that you and those you love will die, but you don’t know when or how. This is the existential dilemma of life, and the price of being a conscious human being. It is simply the way life is constructed.

Getting Past Fear

Are You Willing to Be Changed?

Opening to the possibility of change is essential to your psychological development, but like many people you may be resistant to being changed in a profound way. However, you can learn to be more skillful when it comes to change by applying mindfulness.

Core Values and Essential Intentions

Many people lack clarity about their goals, values, and intentions. We often lump them together and delineate them in varying ways. As we live out the chaos of our lives, it is inevitable that our goals, values, and intentions become enmeshed.

Practicing at Your Edge

Your edge might be renouncing wanting mind, coming to terms with the fragility of life, being present, truly accepting “don’t know mind,” or abandoning a piece of your old lifestyle. There are so many possibilities you can explore.

In Search of Meaning

Most of our thoughts, words, and actions are taken up with our survival, reproduction, and family responsibilities. If there’s any time left over, we might examine the meaning of our life in relation to our community and the world at large. After that, we might explore the

Healing Your Mother (or Father) Wound

If you have unresolved feelings about your mother (or father), making them part of your mindfulness practice can transform what has been a hindrance in your life into a teacher.

Beyond Happiness

in the four noble truths, the buddha focused primarily on suffering as a gateway to liberation. but he also taught that mindfulness of happiness can provide the same liberating insights as suffering.

Decision Time

The Buddha taught that mental suffering arises out of ignorance. By “ignorance” he meant the misperceptions and delusions that your mind has about its own nature. Thus, the way to free the mind

The Three Wholesome Exchanges of the Heart

Have you ever felt the need to be called forth by someone or something that will lead you to step forward and meet the challenges that prevent you from embodying your largest capacities?

Ten Values Associated With Well-Being

The values that we live by can be considered our inner priorities and they guide us in how we implement our outer priorities, the areas of our lives to which we choose to devote time.

Forgiving the Unforgivable

Forgiveness can be understood as a spiritual practice and has been taught as such by Jesus, the Buddha, and many other spiritual teachers. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines forgiveness in this manner: “To cease to feel resentment against on account of a

Being Mindful of the Gap

Why it is that when practitioners become significantly more skillful in being mindful, they also report that the mindfulness isn’t having as large an impact of reducing suffering in their lives as they expected? In continually reflecting on this predicament

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