Category: Buddhist Wisdom
The Mind-Heart of the Buddha
At the core of Mahayana Buddhism, explains Kaira Jewel Lingo, is bodhichitta, the bodhisattvas’ enlightened aspiration to save all sentient beings.
This Very Mind Is Buddha
In the Chan and Zen traditions, says Guo Gu, enlightenment is not something we create or achieve. It’s who we already are.
Cooled, At Peace, Free from Suffering
Bhante Sujato on nibanna, the state of enlightenment beyond all conditioned existence.
Meet a Teacher: Bhante Sanathavihari
I grew up in the ethnically diverse neighborhoods of Koreatown and Hollywood in Los Angeles. My father was a Marine Corps veteran and my mother was from Jerez, Mexico. My parents had an affinity for Asian cultures, and my first school was a private Christian Korean school. In my teenage years, I attended Hollywood High…
Joyful Wandering
From ecology to nirvana to a monk in high heels — Bonnie Nadzam recommends new books for your spiritual journey.
Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022)
Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and founder of the Engaged Buddhism movement, died January 22 in his home country of Vietnam. He was 95.
Continuing Thay’s Teachings
Meet eight of Thich Nhat Hanh’s students who are now teachers themselves. In their own unique ways, they’re helping to carry his dharma into the future.
Whatever Way the Wind Blows
So-called objective reality, Pico Iyer finds, is as fickle as the weather. Maybe that’s because it’s as much mind as matter.
Why Meditation isn’t Enough
We can’t just blindly meditate, says Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Our practice must be illuminated by deep, critical study of the Buddhist teachings.
The Four Noble Truths Are a Plan of Action
Buddhist teacher and scholar Jan Willis on the Buddha’s central teaching — his diagnosis and cure for suffering.
Working with Loneliness on the Contemplative Path
Rashid Hughes explores the importance of listening to loneliness and leaning into social intimacy when engaging in contemplative practice.
America has Zen all the time. Why, my Teacher, should I meddle?
Teachings and poems by the late Nyogen Senzaki. From Like A Dream, Like a Fantasy: The Zen Writings and Translations of Nyogen Senzaki.
Empty, Pure, Luminous: Mind in Dzogchen and Mahamudra
Roger R. Jackson explains how different Tibetan schools approach the nature of mind, and why it matters.
Dharma for a Traumatized World
The cause of our global suffering is forgetting that we belong to one another and to the earth. Tara Brach recommends four practices to nourish a sense of collective belonging.
Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are
The African philosophy of ubuntu teaches that we are human only through the humanity of others. Buddhists of African descent explore the synergy between ubuntu and the Buddhist teachings on interdependence.
The Zen of Joan Didion
Read David Swick's classic Lion's Roar profile of Joan Didion, who died December 23 at age 87.
The Many Faces of Cultural Appropriation
What does cultural appropriation mean in a Buddhist context? According to Chenxing Han and Trent Walker, the answer is not as simple as we might like it to be.
May All Be Well: The Aspirations of the Medicine Buddha
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche shares the fundamentals of Buddhist medicine and the intentions behind it.
The Practice of Wonderment
When your life takes the shape of a question, says Guo Gu, then you have entered the practice of huatou.