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Excerpts
Patience With Big & Small Frustrations Is Needed
Jan. 8 | Turning away and touching are both wrong.For it is like a massive fire.— Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi Hakuin Zenji was falsely accused of impregnating a young girl who lived in the village near his hermitage. When her parents and villagers...
The Phenomenon Of Jewish Buddhists
Jan. 1 | ‘Is your essential nature defined by your gender, race, culture… born into?’ The Pew Research Center’s (2013) ‘A Portrait of Jewish Americans’ revealed that the Jewish identity has undergone a significant transformation...
Do People Swarm To You Or Shun You?
Dec. 25 | If there is always affinityor the lack of it,we might as well createonly good affinity.— Shilashanti Once Sakyamuni Buddha and his disciple Mahamaudgalyayana went with a large gathering of followers to another country to convert living beings....
Increasing Mindfulness Without Morality Can Be Dangerous
Dec. 18 | Without the right motivationtowards the right goal, anything in between might be wrong. – Shilashanti As noted by Matthieu Ricard, a French Buddhist monk, ‘There can be mindful snipers and mindful psychopaths who maintain a calm and stable...
How Managers Can Have Right Speech
Dec. 11 | Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle chatter. This is called right speech. – The Buddha(Magga-vibhanga Sutta) The primary goal of giving feedback at work isn’t generally to make someone...
Those Who Care For The Buddha Should Care For The Sick Too
Dec. 4 | Think of helping yourselfbut give thought to others too.Radiate metta towards all beings.Without the foundation of compassion,the long trudge of Samsara has no end.Without it, how can you enter the city of Nirvana?– Loveda Sangarava “Now at...
In Summer & Winter, Dress & Eat
Nov. 27 | No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.– Alan Watts The greater part of Zen literature consists of mondo, of brief dialogues between masters and pupils, which illustrate its peculiar method of instruction,...
Effects Of Ten Unwholesome (Evil) Karmic Paths (十恶业道)
Nov. 13 | Those with great greed become hungry ghosts.Those with great hatred become hell-beings.Those with great delusion become animals. Of the Ten Unwholesome Karmic Paths, the most severe are causes for the hells, the average degrees are causes...
Arrange Things Simply To Simplify Your Mind
Nov. 6 | When getting what needed, you only need to get what is good enough, and it is good enough. – Shilashanti The relationship between the mind and the body is like that between the chicken and the egg. If you cultivate a simplified mindset, your body, too,...
Eat Clean With Your Whole Heart
Oct. 30 | Consume mindfully with compassion and wisdom or consume mindlessly with greed and delusion. – Shilashanti Do not neglect your meals: Make your meals about the eating When you eat, are you focused on the act of eating? Breakfast is something you race...
Discard What You Don’t Need
Oct. 19 | What you do truly not need is so, even if you do not think so. What you do truly need is so, even if you do not think so. – Shilashanti When things aren’t going well, we tend to think we are lacking in something. But if we want to change...
Mindfulness Without Being Mindful Of Core Ethics & Its Ultimate Goal
Oct. 2 | Mindfulness is good – but what guides your mindfulness, if not sound ethics, and where does it lead to, if not true enlightenment? – Shilashanti The conspicuous absence of a path for ethical development in the secularized mindfulness movement creates...
Wake Up Earlier To Be Less Busy
Sep. 25 | Find more time to live a more meaningful life – before you run out of time. – Shilashanti When we are short on time, this scarcity extends to our heart as well. We automatically say, ‘I’m busy – I don’t have time.’ When we...
How To Reset & Recalibrate Your Mind
Sep. 18 | Be with yourself as you are, but without haste, without impatience. – Shunmyo Masuno In our everyday lives, do any of us have time to think about nothing? I imagine most people would say, ‘I don’t have a moment to spare for that.’...
