The Zen of an Aching Heart
Sometimes suffering the losses and the unexpected betrayals and breakups that befall each of us becomes where we grow deepest in our capacity to lead …
Category: Articles
Enacting Mindfully
Another means for working with difficulties is called Enacting It Mindfully. Let’s face it, we act out most of our desires anyway. In this way,…
Forgiveness Repairs the World
Buddhist psychology offers specific teachings and practices for the development of forgiveness. Like the practice of compassion, forgiveness does not ignore the truth of our…
Remembering Who You Are
“How amazing. All living beings have the Buddha nature of awakening and freedom, yet they do not realize this. Unknowingly they wander on the ocean…
Healthy Desire
Buddhist psychology teaches us to distinguish between the painful desire of addiction and driven ambition and the healthy energies of dedication and commitment. A dream…
Immediacy
Spiritual Awakening is found in the here and now. In the Zen tradition they say, “After the ecstasy, the laundry.” Spiritual maturity manifests itself in…
Awaken the Buddha Within
The karmic patterns that we create through our hearts transcend the limitations of time and space. To awaken the heart of compassion and wisdom in…
Forgiving Ourselves
Finding a way to extend forgiveness to ourselves is one of our most essential tasks. Just as others have been caught in suffering, so have…
Balancing What is Reactive
What is it that is reactive? Our minds are reactive: liking and disliking, judging and comparing, clinging and condemning. Our minds are like a balance scale, and…
Moving Toward Freedom
Learning takes place only in a mind that is innocent and vulnerable.—Krishnamurti There are four principles for mindful transformation of difficulties, poetically articulated by Michele…
The Path Is Not Linear but Circular and Continuous
Systematic depictions of spiritual stages can make it seem as if the path is simple, linear, and progressive, as if spiritual life were a step-by-step…
Honesty and a Non-Contentious Heart
The Buddha’s teachings point to a non-contentious heart. “There is gain and loss, slander and honor, praise and blame, pleasure and pain; the awakened ones…
