Category: Teachings
I Never Gave Up on Dharma: Ngakpa Kalzang’s Journey from Tibet
Dhondup T. Rekjong tells the story of Ngakpa Kalzang, an exile of Tibet and experienced tantric Buddhist practitioner working as a landscaper on Canada's Vancouver Island.
The Primal Vow of Pure Land Buddhism
The foundation of the Pure Land path, explains Takashi Miyaji, is Amitabha Buddha’s vow to liberate anyone who calls on him.
What do all of the terms for Buddhist meditation mean?
I’m confused about all the different terms for meditation, like shamatha, vipassana, zazen, mindfulness, calm abiding, insight, just sitting. What's what?
Thich Nhat Hanh’s Doors of Liberation
No self, no form, no goal: Thich Nhat Hanh on the truth we’re distracting ourselves from.
10 Steps to Tame the Elephant
For generations, Tibetan practitioners have been guided by a chart outlining the nine stages of samatha meditation. Jan Willis takes us through the map and introduces us to the characters along the way.
The Freedom of Emptiness
At the heart of the path of the paramitas is prajna, or wisdom—but a wisdom that goes beyond our conventional ideas about it. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche unpacks how that kind of wisdom works.
Rest in Your Buddhanature
Your true nature is like the sky, says Mingyur Rinpoche, its love and wisdom unaffected by the clouds of life. You can access it with this awareness meditation.
Meditating on the Hugeness of Life
It's a three-week "practice period" at the Zen Center. Sure, it sounds tough — but in the end, it's all love.
Enlightenment of the Cosmic Buddhas
Through the Pure Land practice of nembutsu, explains Mark Unno, we “foolish beings” entrust ourselves to the full awakening of Amida, the primordial Buddha of Infinite Light.
Everything Is This Wisdom
Pema Khandro on the primordial knowing that, according to the Dzogchen teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, is the source and true nature of ourselves and all reality.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Making Offerings to Our Ancestors
When we place offerings on the altar for teachers long past, do we understand what we are doing, or why? Zenju Earthlyn Manuel looks into the depths of that encounter between past and present.
What Stories Do We Allow Ourselves to Hear?
When we read fantastical stories in Buddhist texts, we might simply dismiss them as myth. Ralph H. Craig III invites us to look at them a little more deeply.