Category: Buddhist Wisdom
The Four Immeasurables Leave Nothing Untouched
If you don’t want your happiness to impede that of someone else, says Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, practice the four immeasurables.
Healing Anti-Asian Hate on My Birthday
On a birthday like no other, Canyon Sam reflects on celebrating beauty and practicing joy and compassion in the face of an increase in anti-Asian violence.
Looking Deeply into Impermanence, No-self, and Nirvana
Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that by looking deeply we develop insight into impermanence and no self. These are the keys to the door of reality.
Buddha: The Great Physician
The Buddha is compared to a doctor because he treated the suffering that ails all of us. His diagnosis and cure, says Zen teacher Norman Fischer, is called the four noble truths.
Sew Contemplative
Place your mind on the needle dipping in and out of the fabric, says Cyndi Lee. If you space out, the stitches will go crooked, and that will wake you up.
To Walk Proudly as Buddhist Women: An Interview with Dhammananda Bhikkhuni
Cindy Rasicot interviews Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, Thailand’s first fully ordained Theravada nun, on women's ordination, feminism, the role of monastics in society, and more.
Your Whole Body is Hands and Eyes
Ejo McMullen on the total response of Avalokiteshvara — with a thousand arms, an eye on the palm of each hand — as the model of the bodhisattva path.
Deconstructing Whiteness
Joy Brennan shows how Yogacara teachings reveal whiteness as a constructed identity—and how they offer a path through it, to bodhisattva activity.
Motherhood Is More Than a Metaphor
Sarah Jacoby examines how even though mothering has been held up in Buddhist teachings as a model of compassion, actual mothering has never gotten much respect.
The Outer Limits of Attention
Ken Kessel on how we, as Buddhist practitioners, should pay attention — even to the things we’re not paying attention to.
Behind “the Global Goenka”
Lauren Leve reviews "S. N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight" by Daniel M. Stuart.
In New York, Vesak 2021 in Photos
Photographer A. Jesse Jiryu Davis documented three Vesak celebrations in New York this year.
The Buddha is Still Teaching
The true Buddha isn’t limited to the body or mind of a particular person who lived long ago. He is present today, says Jack Kornfield, in teachers pointing the way to a timeless freedom.
How to Read and Study Buddhist Teachings
There is such a wealth of Buddhist books and teachings to consume. Where do you start? Here are some tips on how to tackle your reading list.
How Meditation Saved My Mind
Sometimes we’re committed to our meditation practice and sometimes we drift away. No matter what, Matthew Kohut believes we can always find our way home to the cushion.
Lots of Buddhas
In Sanskrit, the word buddha can mean “awakened,” “expanded,” and “understood.” It was the title bestowed on an itinerant teacher about whom little is known, apart from the teachings that have been attributed to him. The Buddha first appears in the rock edicts of Emperor Ashoka, who ruled India from 268 to 232 BCE. For…
Bodhidharma’s Wall Gazing Meditation
Zen teacher Karen Maezen Miller explains Bodhidharma's famous practice of wall-gazing.
The Tao of Buddha
In "China Root," David Hinton invites the reader to reexamine Zen through its roots in Taoist teachings. Here, he takes a Taoist lens to the idea of “Buddha” itself.
Buddha, the Ultimate Radical
Andrew Olendzki shares all that made the Buddha one of the most radical people who ever lived.
I See You, I Am Here: The Secret to Heartfelt Communication
Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu shows us how we can truly connect with others with the Zulu practice of Sawubona.