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,...
Book Excerpts
Search
Envision Liberation and Justice
If we are able to quiet the mind and face what is true it’s easier to envision liberation from suffering for ourselves, our community and...
Learning from the Precepts
Pick and refine one or more of the five basic training precepts as a way to cultivate and strengthen mindfulness. Work with a precept meticulously...
Undertaking the Five Precepts: Nonharming as a Gift to the World
Every great spiritual system offers guidelines for ethical conduct as a statement that spiritual life cannot be separated from our words and actions. A conscious...
Enacting Mindfully
The fifth skillful means for working with difficulties is called Enacting It Mindfully. Let’s face it, we act out most of our desires anyway. In...
Know That Power is Not Wisdom
To further sort out the gold from the dross in spiritual life we must distinguish between wisdom and power. Powers can include psychic ability, special...
Recognize the Halo Effect
In order to take what’s good, we need to recognize a second principle of wise relationship and disentangle ourselves from the halo effect. The halo...
Take What’s Good
When dealing with the humanness and the complexity of teachers, it is helpful to keep a few other principles in mind. One is called take...
Grasping and Wanting
Grasping and wanting are two names for the most painful aspects of desire. Because our language uses the word desire in so many ways, it...
How to Begin Naming
Begin by sitting comfortably, focusing awareness on your breathing. As you feel each breath, carefully acknowledge it with a simple name: “in-breath, out-breath,” saying the...
Purification: The Gateway to Higher States
Learning to concentrate, though initially difficult, works. Gradually, through repeated focus on our subject over hours and days, the mind’s wandering diminishes. It settles down...
