insight

With no effort or practice whatsoever, Enlightenment is here

In all sects of Buddhism, meditation is a prevalent practice,  but Buddhist teachers from different sects use different language to teach meditation.…

March 12, 2011

“The Brightened Mind,” by Ajahn Sumano Bhikkhu

Ajahn Sumano is a Chicagoan who worked in the corporate world before becoming a Buddhist monk and living in a…

March 11, 2011

Paul Klee: “Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void”

Paul Klee, the famous Swiss/German expressionist painter, may seem to be making an almost mystical claim here -- that creativity…

November 11, 2010

The ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ phenomenon

When the film Four Weddings and a Funeral came out in 1994, I was irritated by the film’s ‘token’ inclusion…

November 9, 2010

Born to be free

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, author of Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom, explains that our innate drive for freedom can…

October 28, 2010

Want to get enlightened? Here are some tips.

Last night I taught the first night of a class on achieving Insight through meditation. This being the first night…

April 8, 2010

Nine ways that a meditating brain creates better relationships

Psychology Today: It's never too late to have a (brain that's wired as if it had a) happy childhood Therapists…

December 23, 2009

John Dewey: “The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.”

Dewey's saying echoes Buddhist notions of impermanence and not-self. Bodhipaksa points out that the Buddhist position is not merely descriptive…

September 21, 2009

“Self, meditating,” by Robert Wright

New York Times: This Friday I’m heading up to rural Massachusetts in hopes of getting born again — again. Six…

August 20, 2009

The centrality of impermanence

If there is just one thing you should learn about this world, anicca is it. It may be an exaggeration…

March 30, 2009