We often look back 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 100 years and ask, How did humans ever do that? What were they thinking? What was wrong with those people? We call them barbaric or monstrous, whether it was lobotomies on mental patients, denying women their rights, or denying minorities basic human dignity. I always ask: why do we have to wait to look back on other societies? Why can’t…
There was a famous lama I once spoke with in a Buddhist monastery in northern India. He was one of those lamas with the last name “Rinpoche.” I’ll butcher the first name, so I’ll just call him Mr. Rinpoche.He said:A bird needs two wings to fly, and humans need two wings to fly. One is wisdom, and one is experience.Wisdom is the intellectual understanding we develop about ourselves and spirituality…
It’s like watching a movie. It is a wonderful experience, unless we forget that it’s just a movie. But when we realize it is an illusion brought forth by the projector and the screen, then we can truly enjoy it, knowing we’re safe and knowing that nothing can hurt our true selves, that light of consciousness within us. If we look deeply into the nature of the universe, what we…
We all have these most advanced, incredible bodies of infinite potential. When we lose our gratefulness, we lose sight of our infinite nature. Instead of seeing infinite possibilities, we see only obstacles. But when we are grateful for ourselves, we know we can overcome anything, that there is nothing that somebody else has that we do not possess in terms of our inner ability. Every single one of us wins.…
Usually what happens when we have those unwanted, intrusive, misery-inducing thoughts, is that we are trying to suppress something that is clearly there and trying to express itself. Suppression and repression only feed negative thoughts more energy.Distraction and escape just keep them bubbling under the surface. Engaging with those thoughts feeds them too. So what the heck are we supposed to do?!The key to freeing ourselves from a dark past…
We think we see the world as it is. But we see the world as we interpret it to be, and that interpretation is everything. If we see a picture in the newspaper, and it is a woman crying in front of a burned house, and the caption says, “Woman saved by neighbor,” and we read that and realize this is a happy moment, this isn't a tragic loss. But…
Minimalism is a practice that can really help us appreciate what we have and be very mindful about what we need, what we want, and what isn't contributing to our well-being. So often we're surrounded by stuff that we don't want, that we'll never use, and that is just creating clutter in our house, in our lives, and in our minds. So if we start to really notice what we…
The Key to Observing Thoughts Most of the time, in our day-to-day lives, we are lost in thought, pondering various ideas without actively observing them. We are not consciously witnessing or listening to our thoughts. If we were to ask ourselves what we were thinking about a minute ago, most of the time, unless we've been fixated on something all day, we'd have no idea. The key to observing our…
Our minds are not much more than universe simulators. It is truly a remarkable feat that our minds can create such a perfect, solid internal recreation of the outer world. The fact that our minds can project all of the details of our universe, all of the intricate architecture around us, all the complicated details of a flower, in such high resolution, with such clear sound, is truly astonishing. But the…
When someone we love dies, where do they go? What is death?These are stories. They may be universal. We may all suffer immensely, but we are suffering a story. If your friend is moving away forever but going to live at Disney World, their favorite place on earth, you’re not really that sad. So it is our stories that we believe about death that make us suffer.In regard to something we…
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