When everything around you is shifting, the Buddha’s final teaching points you back to something unshakable. On his deathbed, the Buddha encouraged all practitioners to follow this injunction: “Be an island unto yourself.”
How can you keep your heart open in the midst of a moral dilemma? In times of conflict, we are often confronted with moral dilemmas that cannot be easily resolved—questions of action and restraint, justice and compassion.
The Inner Path of meditation is thoroughly known. Its development is predictable, which means that it is teachable. And since it’s teachable, it’s learnable.
The 3 Stages of Japanese sword crafting are the same 3 stages of traditional Budo training, of any form of personal development. Namely; 1) shape, 2) sharpen, 3) polish.
When transitioning from one year to the next, it’s good to assess what aspects of your life would you like to leave behind, what would you like to carry forward, and what would you like to awaken in the new year. Most importantly, where are you at this very moment, and how does this facilitate the transition?
On Dec. 20th, I facilitated an end-of-year community meditation with our community. In this session, I spoke about how transitions apply to the Tibetan Buddhist teaching of rebirth consciousness. In this teaching, it is said that what we carry forward into our next rebirth is the totality of our karma and the totality of our wisdom.
Based on this talk, we did a reflection practice on where we’ve been, a mindfulness exercise to ground in the present, and a guided meditation to set intentions for the coming year. You are invited to join this practice by watching the replay below.
Meditation In A Time Of Crisis – As the world spirals into yet another all too frequent crisis, we are once again confronted with the truth of our basic human fragility. At times like these, when confronted with our human vulnerability it is not uncommon to be overcome by insecurity, anxiety, and fear. Now more than ever, it’s important to rely on your Dharma practice as a refuge. Not as a practice of liberation that gives you refuge FROM the world, but rather as one that gives you refuge IN the world.
