People go on retreat because it enables them to have insight, and access to inner resources, of creativity, intelligence and love that they can’t reach as easily at home…
Category Archives: Recent Posts
There’s a reason people do long retreats
I don’t think most working people in America even dream of going on an extended retreat. Vacations, if they’re taken at all, are more to recover energy, or to see someplace new. The idea of stepping out of society for weeks or months at a time is not thought about, or seen as desirable to most, but only because they don’t know the advantages of it…
An Ocean of Prayers – Contents
An Ocean of Prayers – Introduction
The following is an introduction to the essays I have written on Buddhist Prayer (Volume One), to articles on the subject by various teachers (Volume Two), and to the 15 volumes in this collection titled An Ocean of Prayers…
An Arrow From the Dark Woods
Ideas, or experiences, or impulses at times rise up from depths in our psyche that are unknown to us. They can strike us like an arrow from dark woods, and call us to greater understanding…
What kind of mind will we use
Recently I have gathered my notes on Buddhist psychology, along with what I have tried my best to include in practice over the years. I see now that the main difference between my early introduction to these teachings and how I see them now has to do with the different qualities of mind we can have…
War and Peace from a Dharmic Perspective
Many of us these days are feeling pulled into the strife and agony of the people in the middle east, and are unsure of what to do, and how to think about these things. There are countless opinions being offered in the news, but most of them are just repeating the values and thinking that got us here in the first place…
Awakening Unconditional Compassion for Self and Others
As Westerners, we have inherited the dysfunction of self blame, and the bitter rejection of parts of ourselves and others that don’t fit with an idealized image…
The Mahayana Motivation is Like Aiming to Become a Doctor
We can go to the doctor, to a clinic or hospital for any of a number of reasons. If it’s some small, temporary problem, we would go to be treated for that. If it is something more serious, or chronic, we could go for example for an operation, or to a treatment facility for an extended period of time, until we were fully cured…
Practicing the One Vehicle – The Vehicle of Awakening
A person meeting the Buddhist teachings for the first time will notice a difference in emphasis in Traditions. In the Theravada, the main focus is on individual liberation, and the in the Mahayana practice is for the sake of all our family, for all beings…
Why do we pray?
Every Letter of Every Word of Prayer
I had an experience two ago that set me on a journey to understand the nature of prayer more deeply…
On Wisdom and Compassion Together
From The Continual Practice of Right View I
In Buddhism, the cause of suffering is a self grasping ignorance that is habitual, and pervasive, and reflexive. When this is seen through, or seen for what it is, we experience ourselves and others and our world differently…
Untying the Knot of the Ego
One cannot rely on the dualistic, deluded mind to undo its own delusions (which is using the same kind of mind that created the problems)
Finally, it is the non-deluded, noncompounded, nondual, ultimate reality itself that has the real power to remove delusions…
– Shenpen Hookham, from The Buddha Within
On The Potential Power of Vows
A vow is a kind of commitment. It can become the strongest commitment you can make. It can be something you feel with every fiber of your being…
Knowing the Equality of Self and Others
There are two different kinds of equanimity taught in Buddhism. They differ in their causes, and in their results, as I will outline here…
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Instructions on Visualization – Introduction
Among the treasures we have received from Tibetan Buddhism are what are known as the Tantras. These are profound methods we can use to accomplish our purpose, and bring benefit to ourselves and to others…
Tenets of Pure Perception
In Tibetan Buddhism, basic ignorance manifests as what they call ‘impure perception’, or ‘ordinary perception’, the mundane view of the world that we carry with us, and this is seen as the root cause of how we limit ourselves and suffer. The opposite of this is called an enlightened view, pure perception, or sacred outlook. This is a way of experiencing the world as essentially divine in nature, having great beauty and potential…
The Relationship between Time and Place in the Avatamsaka Sutra
There is a saying that,
Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once
and, I have reflected how it is that,
Time is experience, enfolded into time…
To Realize the Unique Purpose of Our Life
There’s a phrase from Lama Tsong Khapa’s teachings that I choose to translate as ‘to realize the purpose of this life’. For everyone, unique as we all are, naturally, this will be different…
To be born into this world for even one minute
to be born in this world
for even one minute
is something extraordinary
Embracing the Uncertainty of the Time of Death
The thought of our own death or the death of our loved ones is something most of us avoid. We fear death and separation and so we don’t look at it directly until we have to…
Buddha Nature is Here and Now
It’s said that:
If things really existed the way they appear,
then not even the Buddhas of the three times could help us…
The good news is that we all have this profound potential…
Compassion and Self-Compassion
What we call compassion is the love we have in us, meeting suffering in ourselves, in our family, and in the world. We are closest to ourselves, and so of course we know our own suffering better than that of others. We need this one quality called self compassion to turn to what is difficult, and to keep our attention on it, and hold it tenderly until it begins to transform…
The Knowledge of Liberation
What makes Buddhism such a great treasure to us all is that it teaches the way to freedom from suffering. When we first hear this, we may find it hard to believe, but if we investigate, test the teachings and begin to have some experience ourselves, our faith and dedication to practice naturally develop…
The Artist As An Activist
I would like to introduce my father as an example of the artist as an activist. This is so important, not only for students and teachers of Latinx and Puerto Rican studies, but for all artists, activists, educators, and aspiring documentarians…
Nine Similes on Buddha Nature
The heart of buddha abides in the hollow of delusions
It can be understood by these images:
On Mythological Time and Space
With our ordinary sense of time, events happen one after the other. Looking ahead, we make plans, and looking back, we measure how far we are now from an experience according to the clock, or calendar. Mythological time though is something completely different. In mythological time, every story that’s been told, of sacred adventures, is about what is happening now, and eternally, and in all times and places…
Understanding Metaphor in Spiritual Teachings and Practice
Everyone who engages spiritual teachings faces the challenge of understanding metaphor. Far from just being a need for academics studying poetics, there is a great difference between those who understand symbolism and those who do not…
The Esoteric Aspect of Connecting With a Tradition
From the outside, when we see a person connecting with a Tradition, it looks fairly straightforward, and self evident. We may see them going to church, or to a temple; on a retreat, or pilgrimage; we may find them joining a candle light procession, reading scriptures or sutras or inspired poetry in time set apart, or having a daily meditation practice. This much can be seen.
Within the experience itself however, there is a richness that is subtle, and tangible. This is less often talked about, and so I’d like to say something about it here…
The Power of Peace
With diamond clear intention, instill faith everywhere. With mirror-like wisdom, stabilize all chaotic minds. – Lama Je Tsongkhapa