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[…] going through a door. The door is that experience is essentially ineffable: we can not say what it is. We can arrive at that door through meditation practice, by progressively seeing impermanence more and more deeply in our experience. We start with the observation that we are going to die, this life is going […]
Article
[…] journey into the unknown or inflate one’s sense of self and reinforce delusion. The experience of mind nature is, for almost everyone, a turning point in their practice. The utter groundlessness of experience, when you know it directly not conceptually, is profoundly meaningful, and it affects people in different ways. For most people, there is […]
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[…] you see clearly, you are more likely to notice what is out of balance. And you understand the connections between imbalances and suffering in the world. Buddhist practice is not an effort to confirm or validate a sense of what we are. It is about seeing and experiencing what is. We let go of […]
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[…] heal from this form of betrayal, so pay careful attention to the quality of your relationship with your teacher. You, as a student, have two responsibilities: To practice what is taught as it is given To apply the practice in your life If you do not trust that the teacher, in the role of […]
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[…] the world or the demands of reactive processes. It consists of a set of power-based methods for presence. Presence, of course, is the aim of all spiritual practice. But two problems consistently show up: Passivity in developing the level of attention that makes insight, compassion, and intention possible. Passivity in cutting through internal and […]
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Everyone knows the old adage “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” In the work environment, the trees are the immediate pressures you feel: demands and directives from above, needs and problems from below. The forest is the bigger picture, the picture beyond the immediate pressures. Most people react to remove pressures as quickly […]
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[…] respond naturally and appropriately to any situation you encounter. “Well, that’s all fine,” you may say, “but how do I actually move from desire to renunciation?” You practice internal renunciation by moving into the experience of desire, instead of trying to fulfill or suppress it. Pick something you want, a physical object, a relationship, […]
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[…] James Carse writes in The Religious Case Against Belief: War presents itself as necessary for self-protection, when in fact it is necessary for self-identification. When, in your practice, the world drops out from under you, you find yourself in a different place. You are completely open. All sense of opposition is gone. What happens […]
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[…] form of knowing is not something intellectual or conceptual. It takes effort to keep that silence in our hearing, and constant attention. Attention, attention, the key to practice, so many teachers have said. It’s true. When we come to know, even a little, this truly miraculous and open nature of our being, we begin […]
