The Practice of Forgiveness

Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed. This is the ancient and eternal law. —Buddha Without forgiveness we are chained to...

Vulnerability and the Tender Heart

“Ultimately it is on our vulnerability that we depend.”—Rilke As children, many of us were taught courage in the form of the warrior or the...

Audio: Meditation on Grief II

When great loss comes, the heart needs to grieve. We need to find a way to honor and tend our grief, to respect its deep...

Freedom from Suffering

“In a world of tension and breakdown it is necessary for there to be those who seek to integrate their inner lives not by avoiding...

Heart Wisdom – Ep. 90 – Healing Through Loving Awareness

How can we cultivate the qualities of mindful loving awareness? How do we listen to the pulse of the world? How do we listen to...

Naming the Wanting Mind

This human world is sometimes called the desire realm because so much of it runs on desire and wanting. How to relate wisely with desire...

Do Not Despair

The Buddhist approach to this collective suffering is to turn toward it. We understand that genuine happiness and meaning will come through tending to suffering....

Healing the Heart

Just as we open and heal the body by sensing its rhythms and touching it with a deep and kind attention, so we can open...

From Self-Hate to Compassion

  In 1989, at one of the first international Buddhist teacher meetings, we Western teachers brought up the enormous problem of unworthiness and self-criticism, shame...

Suffering and Letting Go

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is not. Suffering arises from grasping. Release grasping and be free of suffering. Anyone who has had even the briefest introduction...

Right Understanding

The path of awakening begins with a step the Buddha called right understanding. Right understanding has two parts. To start with, it asks a question...

Audio: Finding Buddha Nature in the Midst of Difficulty Meditation