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Summary | View all

Summary | View all

The Latest in the Wisdom Collection

• 18 comments

  • practice

  Meditating with Emotions

  By Pema Chödrön

  We all have emotional experiences that feel terrifying, and in order to experience our natural state, we have to be willing to experience these emotions—to actually experience our ego and our ego clinging. This may feel disturbing and negative, or even insane. Most of us, consciously or unconsciously, would like meditation to be a chill-out session where we don’t have to relate to unpleasantness. Actually, a lot of people have the misunderstanding that this is what meditation is about. They believe meditation includes everything except that which feels bad. And if something does feel bad, you’re supposed to label it “thinking” and shove it away or hit it on the head with a mallet. When you feel even the slightest hint of panic that you’re about to feel or experience something unpleasant, you use the label “thinking” as a way to repress it, and you rush back to the object of meditation, hoping that you never have to go into this uncomfortable place. More »
• 26 comments

  • feature

  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Enlightenment

  By Shozan Jack Haubner

  At 7,000 feet, the Zen monastery where I live is level with the clouds, which should give you some idea of where my head usually is—not to mention the heads of those who visit our grounds. Let’s talk about them. Occasionally, college students from the basin below appear through wispy nimbi on our gravel driveway. I first catch sight of them via their hairdos—which are dazzling and neon, like art projects—bobbing spikily through the dull gray mist. They travel in brightly colored, body-buttered, scantily clad, cologned and perfumed packs, like wolves with iPods. They are everything I’m not: still in their twenties, hopped up on caffeine and red meat, and eager to talk about Zen. More »
• 31 comments

  • practice

  Holding Anger

  By Jules Shuzen Harris, Sensei

  Anger hinders our liberation from suffering. It takes its toll on our spirit and our health. Stress levels are on the rise. The Harris Poll in 2002 recorded that tension levels in almost half of Americans had worsened over the preceding year. According to the American Institute of Stress, 75 to 90 percent of doctors’ visits are for stress-related ailments. Psychological distress such as anger, anxiety, and depression seems to be a good predictor of high blood pressure, heart attacks, and sudden death. But what is missing from this research is the “first cause,” the damaged self—a belief that manifests as anger projected for the most part onto others. On one level, this projected anger is a defense against one’s “bad self.” On a deeper level, it represents our feelings of vulnerability. More »
• 4 comments

  • brief teachings

  Staying with Boredom

  By Sangharakshita

  How unsatisfactory desire can feel can be gauged by considering our more obviously neurotic cravings, those emerging out of a dull feeling of frustration, boredom, and emptiness. We look for something pleasurable in order to fill that void and relieve the boredom, at least partially and temporarily. You eat a chocolate or drink a cup of tea or put on a piece of music not so much for the positive enjoyment of such things but more because you don’t know what else to do. It is these kinds of craving that should concern us most, more than those that arise out of a strong, healthy appetite. And the way to deal with them is to regard the boredom itself as a positive opportunity. It is like having to deal with fear, anger, or indeed craving, or any other negative mental state. It is an opportunity to experience the energy that is usually drained away by distractions. When you are really bored, the best thing you can do is sit down and let yourself experience the boredom more fully. More »
• 11 comments

  • brief teachings

  Renunciation

  By Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche

  Based on our stubborn belief in a “self,” we become completely overwhelmed by all kinds of emotions. Again and again, this belief in a self leads to our downfall. We feel deeply attached to ourselves and to those whom we associate with ourselves; along with this attachment to self comes its dark companion—a subtle aversion toward all that we regard as “not me” and “not mine.” We also classify objects—our possessions—as belonging to “me.” They are “ours.” This commonly held assumption is weighed down with emotions. Yet if we take the time to really look into this notion, we might just realize that nothing truly belongs to us. When we depart from this world, everything we know and own must be left behind. We can’t even bring along this body that we’ve cherished so intensely year after year. So what do we truly own and where is the presumed owner—this pampered “I”—for whose sake we argue, fight, crave, yearn, indulge, and so forth? More »
• 18 comments

  • brief teachings

  Thoughts Like Dreams

  By Ajahn Amaro

  The best way to deal with excessive thinking is to just listen to it, to listen to the mind. Listening is much more effective than trying to stop thought or cut it off. When we listen there is a different mode employed in the heart. Instead of trying to cut it off, we receive thought without making anything out of it. Most of our thoughts are like dreams. Occasionally, perhaps once or twice a year, we may have a dream that is significant and we know it. We may not know exactly what it is about, but it is pretty clear that there’s a message in it. But the other 364 days a year it’s just the leftovers of the day. There is nothing particularly significant or important about any of our dream content at all. It’s just the residue, the echoes of the day’s events and activities, the things that we have rehashed a couple of times already. More »