The Heart’s Intention
Becoming aware of intention is the key to awakening in moment-to-moment practice. In each situation that calls for our engagement, some inner intention will precede...
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Rumi’s Teacher
The great Persian poet Rumi had an extraordinary teacher named Shams. Even as a child Shams seemed different. His own parents struggled with whether to...
Boredom
Another form of aversion that we can learn to be mindful of is boredom. Usually we are afraid of boredom and will do anything to...
Equanimity vs Indifference
The near enemy of equanimity is indifference or callousness. We may appear serene if we say, “I’m not attached. It doesn’t matter what happens anyway,...
Cultivating Compassion
There are many levels on which we can strengthen and awaken compassion in our lives. We can practice it in silence as we sit. When...
Skillful Service is Born of a Quiet Heart
Wise intention and skillful service need to be nourished by periods of quiet and prayer. Every great tradition includes some from of the Sabbath. In...
A Full Awareness of the Feelings
This is a second principle for releasing repeated patterns-Open to a Full Awareness of the Feelings. It is the feeling level that controls most of...
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...
Turning Difficulties into Healing
In the Arthurian legends, the young knight Parsifal joins the Knights of the Round Table to seek the Holy Grail. His mentor, Gournamond, tells him that to...
The Monks & The River
Once two Tibetan monks traveling on pilgrimage came to a rushing river. There they saw an ugly old leper woman sitting on the bank, begging...
The Fruits of Non-Identification
Buddhist psychology calls non-identification the abode of awakening, the end of clinging, true peace, nirvana. Without identification, we can respectfully care for ourselves and others,...
Karma & Habit
In the ancient texts, karma is written as a compound word, karma-vipaka. Karma-vipaka means “action and result,” or what we call cause and effect. This...
