By Manish Chopra | 5/9/2022
I handed the instructions for the
location over to the chosen driver and we started making our way to the
destination. I closed my eyes for a few minutes in the back of the taxi
and the meditation process started spontaneously despite all the sounds
outside and the bright sunlight. I was delighted to note that I was able
to meditate in an unusual setting like a car ride. Taxis and flights
were a big part of my work week so it was comforting to know that I
could meditate in such environments.
By Bhikkhu Anālayo | 5/9/2022
From
the viewpoint of cultivating liberating insight, a central distinction
to be made is that between avoiding the types of joy that lead to
attachment while at the same time recognizing that there are commendable
forms of joy. These are in particular the wholesome types of joy that
come from deepening insight and learning to let go of clinging and
attachments. Finding joy in such letting go can provide an important
inspiration for dedicating ourselves wholeheartedly to the continuity of
practice and for this reason should not be underestimated.
By Patrick Given-Wilson | 5/9/2022
For centuries Ashoka and his reign were forgotten in the mists of time and history, his name hardly known, his monuments broken, burnt and buried. It was only in the 19th Century, as India opened up to the West that a series of scholars, epigraphers, and archaeologists began to reassemble and understand his achievements and his message.
By Varsha Patel | 4/24/2022
On the mind's screen
Faces unknown are seen
Strangers from the past nameless to my conscious mind
Strangers from the future whom I might meet sometime
Or just random images in meditation time.
By Manish Chopra | 4/24/2022
The New Year’s Eve party across from our campsite continued well into
the early hours of the morning and the sounds of the live band and the
revelers were intermingled with the chants in the courtyard. This was
probably the first New Year celebration I had spent alone and in a quiet
manner. I reflected on the relevance of “the party’s over when the
music stops” to my condition coming into the camp having lived for all
these years in ignorance, reveling in the party of my unaware and
indulgent consciousness.
By Bruce Stewart | 4/24/2022
This third installment of my four-part essay on the Noble Eightfold
Path explores the cluster of factors that fall under the umbrella of
samādhi. Samādhi is commonly understood in this tradition as collecting
and calming the mind so that it can be focused on the observation of
reality for the purpose of cultivating wisdom/insight. However, it can
more broadly be defined as the calm abiding of mind and body.
By Bruce Stewart | 4/8/2022
Sīla is not merely about
moral and ethical considerations; it is also spiritual in nature, the
very foundation on which any strong practice is built. It is interesting
to note that the tenets of sīla are not intended as commandments.
Rather, sīla is undertaken as a “training.” The Buddha seems very clear
about the importance of sīla, which comprises three of the eight steps
of the Noble Eightfold Path. So in conformity with that teaching, our
tradition gives great importance to maintaining sīla in our lives.
By Manish Chopra | 4/8/2022
At this stage, I was now completely convinced that hard as it may be,
I would continue to put in every effort humanly possible to maintain
the practice of Vipassana meditation when I resumed my regular life. The
significant changes in my energy level, concentration power, attention
span, creativity, mind-body coordination, temperament, and numerous
other faculties I had experienced through the use of this technique were
palpable, especially when I didn’t even know that such a big delta was
even available as headroom for potential improvement.
By Luz Donis | 4/8/2022
On birth waters giving
way to ruptured membranes
the waves of samsara
Crying with pain
not knowing
what is to gain
riding the waves of samsara
By Mosami (11 years old) | 4/8/2022
By Halina Sobrado Wydrzycka | 3/27/2022
There is no way to sit and meditate hour after hour without renouncing, surrendering. Surrendering to the process itself. To
continue to hold on to the mind is an ordeal. There is no way to attend
to stillness while clinging to the mind, this wild animal pulling in
all directions.
By Silvia Escorel | 3/27/2022
Leaves of gold
shine
on
the fresh white snow
and
my heart soars as my boots sink.
By Bruce Stewart | 3/27/2022
In November of 2018, I gave a talk on the
Noble Eightfold Path at an Annual Old Student Meeting at Dhamma Patāpa, a
center in rural Georgia in the tradition of SN Goenka, or Goenkaji as he is affectionately known. My
intent was to present a perspective about how the Eightfold Path intersects
with our meditation practice and daily lives, based on my teaching experience,
practice, and reading over the decades in this tradition.
By Patrick Given-Wilson | 3/20/2022
By Paul and Susan Fleischman | 3/20/2022
As a spring-fed pond wells up with water from its cool depths,
and also receives rain from above
sent by the rain-god from time to time,
so that the rain from above and the spring water from below
mingle,
this pond will become washed through and radiant with fresh
water.
By Manish Chopra | 3/20/2022
I lunched quickly and went back to my room to think through a few
questions I intended to ask at 12:30 pm after the formal Q&A session
open to all students was over, as I had prearranged a private meeting
through the server managing the course. I headed up eagerly to the
Dhamma Hall at 12:20 pm so I might get an extra minute or two with him
in case he wasn’t meeting with another student and I could also catch
the tail end of the official Q&A period.
By Andrée François | 3/5/2022
By Pierre Robert | 3/5/2022
When I was a child I believed, as did many my age, that carrying a
rabbit's foot in my pocket had the power to bring me luck. I never left
home without my precious lucky charm, and I would close my eyes while
rubbing the fetish, hoping that my latest wish would come true. This
ritual was not unlike the fervour I put into my evening prayers,
kneeling with my hands folded: "God, please let me have a new pair of
skates for Christmas!" or "God, please don't let my mother find out I
broke her mirror!"
At some point I had to face the fact that my
prayers were rarely answered, and so the rabbit's foot eventually ended
its career at the bottom of a trash can along with my declaration: "That
thing doesn’t work!"
By Annandhi Chandrasekaran | 3/5/2022
My mind races and rides
through its maze byzantine
as it reads the blogs and views
of people on the news.
By Aleksei Gomez | 2/20/2022
By Manish Chopra | 2/20/2022
I reflected on all the positive benefits that I had drawn with only a
week of employing the Vipassana technique and how seismically my
mindset and behavioral orientation was tilting in a new and positive
direction. I then started to think about what it would be like when I
returned to my life as a consultant, with clients and colleagues, and
with my friends and family who had all known and experienced me
previously in a certain way.
A case in point—I had come to a
fairly informed conclusion that I would find it easy to give up alcohol
because I had discovered that my preexisting logical basis to consume it
to relax the mind was flawed at its core, if I was also to believe that
continuous happiness can only be achieved through a highly vigilant and
equanimous mind, which runs counter to consuming substances that can
overpower or numb the senses. I reckoned most of my family wouldn’t mind
my resolve to abstain from drinking, but certain friends, colleagues
and clients might find it more than a bit odd and potentially
off-putting or anti-social in its appeal.
By Danel Cove | 2/20/2022
The Buddha's inheritance
is enlightenment's imminence
in a lineage of eminence
and unequaled benevolence.
The path that he represents
is walked in full confidence
by disciples of excellence
beyond all comparisons.
By Christine Joly | 2/6/2022
By Kory Goldberg | 2/6/2022
Driving along
what could barely be called a road, a group of children and teens noticed
us—some waved exuberantly; most looked astonished. The occasional motor bike, scooter,
or jeep might pass through here from time-to-time, but a van filled with a
dozen people from around the world was certainly a first for them. When the
not-quite road came to an end, we all hopped out, excited to stretch our legs
and start our walk through this exquisite valley and up the mountain side to
the Pigeon’s Cave, a remote haunt that the Buddha used to retreat to from
time-to-time.
