Participating in Divinity
When we make the effort to understand what may seem strange in the religious practices of others, we may find that it opens the door to something beyond the particular case, something quite general:...
View ArticleOur Common Enemy
If we can begin to consider hatred as the enemy, as your and my enemy, then we can begin to transform our anger into compassion. That will be how we can take advantage of an unfortunate and tragic...
View ArticleRemembering Martin Luther King, Jr.
If the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are about anything, they are about a profound understanding of identity and the broadest possible meaning of liberty—teachings that sooner or later had to appeal...
View ArticleHelping Each Other Through
History's accelerating like technology's accelerated. Can't go back. We can blow the whole show up. Or we can calm fear, see the world is really changing, like a dream, & go explore & help each...
View ArticleTransforming the World
We must proceed with a clear-eyed awareness of the social, political, and economic context in which we live and practice. Once we awaken to where we are, we must take the responsibility to transform...
View ArticleTransforming the World
We must proceed with a clear-eyed awareness of the social, political, and economic context in which we live and practice. Once we awaken to where we are, we must take the responsibility to transform...
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Buddhist Nationalism in Burma
Add to Wisdom Collection: don't add to collection is not public Institutionalized racism against the Rohingya Muslims led Burma to genocide Maung Zarni For those outside Burma, the broadcast images of...
View ArticleAt Your Service
Among all the different forms of life and creatures great and small, we were born as human beings. As such, we are innately endowed with goodness and the consciousness to use it for others. It’s in our...
View ArticleAn Ever-Present Refuge
Love and compassion make us feel safe because they express the safety of their source—the deep buddhanature within us, the unchanging inner space of primal awareness that cannot be harmed. By receiving...
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Why Buddhism Needs the West
Add to Wisdom Collection: Add to Wisdom Collection is not public Buddhism has been a boon to the West. Can the West return the favor? David Loy In an oft-cited statement, which might be apocryphal,...
View ArticleMeditation in Action
Buddhism often appears to promote personal transformation at the expense of social concern. Some Buddhist teachings claim that the mind does not just affect the world, it actually creates and sustains...
View ArticleA Change of Heart
A change of heart requires a great deal of courage and a great deal of compassion. The courage is to not avert our gaze, but instead to turn to the various sufferings in our own life or in the world...
View ArticleThe Power of Perspective
Only a being’s perspective leads to suffering. Two people in the exact same situation, according to their outlook and expectations, can have completely different experiences. Turn that around, and any...
View ArticleIn It Together
As our awareness becomes more liberated, we become more aware of the suffering of others, and of the social forces that aggravate or decrease suffering. The bodhisattva path is not a personal sacrifice...
View ArticleSuffering Guaranteed
Of course we need to practice compassion in individual thoughts and acts—these are the bread and butter of practice, the real test. But where we see political and economic systems guaranteed to...
View ArticleThe Lotus in the Mud
Think of the wonderful teaching of the lotus in the mud: It grows from the muck below and blossoms as a beautiful, pristine flower above. All of us have our feet in the stinking mud, and yet there is...
View ArticleThe Path of Engagement
The starting point is overcoming ignorance. That’s where the Buddha said we should start. We have to make it part of our daily discipline to become better informed about the world we live in. We need...
View ArticleWhat are you mindful of?
If ‘mindfulness’ is to create genuine change in our society, it must involve being mindful of more than just our own need for comfort, good health, or serenity. It must entail being mindful of the...
View ArticleThe Pursuit of Happiness
It’s our nature to want happiness and not want suffering. Thus, Buddhists do not ask that one give up the pursuit of happiness, but merely suggest that one become more intelligent about how happiness...
View ArticleBeware the Dailiness of Life
One of the mighty illusions that is constructed in the dailiness of life in our culture is that all pain is a negation of worthiness, that the real chosen people, the real worthy people, are the people...
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