You can’t make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes will flow naturally. You don’t have to force anything...
You can’t ever get everything you want. It is impossible. Luckily, there is another option. You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of the endless cycle of desire and aversion. You can lea...
Why do you have to do all this after attaining a jhana? Jhana is like a juggling act. You keep things suspended in the air or balanced. Then you drop them. Then you start over.
When you see deeply, as a real experience, with your own wisdom-eye, that all conditioned things are impermanent, your mind state changes. Your superficial understanding of impermanence becomes a deep...
When you have learned compassion for yourself, compassion for others is automatic. An accomplished meditator has achieved a profound understanding of life, and he or she inevitably relates to the worl...
When you are totally absorbed in the subject of your meditation, when you merge with or become one with the subject, you are completely unaware. That too is not jhana, at least not what Buddhism consi...
We categorize experiences. We try to stick each perception, every mental change in this endless flow, into one of three mental pigeon holes: it is good, bad, or neutral. Then, according to which box w...
VIPASSANA MEDITATION is something of a mental balancing act. You are going to be cultivating two separate qualities of the mind—mindfulness and concentration.
There is a short ragged breath and there is a deep long one. I wonder what’s next? No, that is not vipassana. That is thinking.
The process of becoming who you will be begins first with the total acceptance of who you are.
The mind can never be focused without a mental object. Therefore we must give our mind an object that is readily available every present moment. One such object is our breath. The mind does not have t...
The lowest level is adherence to a set of rules and regulations laid down by somebody else. It could be your favorite prophet. It could be the state, the head of your tribe, or a parent. No matter who...
The actual experience lies beyond the words and above the symbols.
Skillful thoughts, on the other hand, are those connected with generosity, compassion, and wisdom. They are skillful in the sense that they may be used as specific remedies for unskillful thoughts, an...
Seeing with wisdom means seeing things within the framework of our body/mind complex without prejudices or biases springing from our greed, hatred and delusion.
Our six senses are like hungry animals. They always look for something outside us to consume.
Our mind is analogous to a cup of muddy water. The longer you keep a cup of muddy water still, the more the mud settles down and the water will be seen clearly.
No matter how hard you pursue pleasure and success, there are times when you fail. No matter how fast you flee, there are times when pain catches up with you. And in between those times, life is so bo...
Mindfulness reminds the mediator to apply his attention to the proper object at the proper time and to exert precisely the amount of energy needed to do the job.
Mindfulness of impermanence in any of the four foundations is the entry point. Seeing anicca leads you to seeing dukkha and anatta. Seeing these three marks of existence leads you to liberation.