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The Latest in the Wisdom Collection

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  • online retreats

  The Whole of the Path

  By Sylvia Boorstein

  In the last few years, I’ve chosen to use the Metta Sutta, the Buddha’s sermon on impartial kindness, as my principal text. I’ve been particularly interested in teaching the Metta Sutta because I think it presents an overview of the entire practice path that the Buddha taught. It begins with the challenging and inspiring line, “This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness and who knows the path of peace,” and continues with instructions for morality practice, mental discipline, and the cultivation of wisdom. I love that this text is totally unequivocal. The cultivation of unshakable goodwill toward all beings, “omitting none”—a practice made possible through the “gladness and safety” that is the fruit of firm ethics—liberates the mind from “fixed views” so that its essential peace is undisturbed. More »
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  • gardening

  A Palace of Decay

  By Wendy Johnson

  I stand on the ice-black ground of December, tearing apart matted roots of coastal iris, preparing to sow dark chestnut redwood seed in deep wooden boxes. To my wicked delight, the last celebrated plants of summer have frozen to death and been carted off to our roaring compost heap. My mind is free to range the stark terrain of winter. More »
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  • brief teachings

  Finding Your Place

  By By Eihei Dogen Zenji Translated by Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi

  A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the sky. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air, it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water, it will die at once.Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish.Besides this, further steps can be taken. Thus there are practice and enlightenment, which encompass both eternal life and limited life. More »
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  • brief teachings

  Creating Space

  By Kyabgon Phakchok Rinpoche

  These days we have so many things to think about: our health, our family, our work, our dharma practice. When we don’t know how to deal with them, these worries can make our minds start to slowly shrink, becoming more and more narrow, and as a consequence more and more negative. Sometimes things start to overwhelm us and we feel trapped physically. A small problem can come to seem so big that we can’t deal with it at all. A good way to deal with this is to create space mentally. It helps relieve the tension and uptightness in your mind and in your body as well. Creating space is a very simple method. This is a technique we can apply to give ourselves space and freedom and relief from all our worrisome thoughts. More »
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  • brief teachings

  Cooling Emotional Fires

  By Allan Lokos

  The destructive effects of anger are easily recognized. When even mild annoyance arises, it can quickly grow and overwhelm us. Inner peace is lost. If we look at how anger arises, we see that it usually happens when we feel unheard, unseen, or unfairly treated. If in that moment we look within, we may sense a feeling that anger can help us get even with the offending person or change the vexing situation. So the anger that arises can seem to have value, but in reality it cannot. There might be some logic to responding with anger if it could negate the offense that has taken place, but that cannot happen because the deed has already occurred. So anger cannot reduce or prevent the perceived wrong. More »
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  • Zen (Chan)

  The Three Refuges

  Posted by Philip Ryan on 04 Jan 2012

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