Daily Dharma

Being human is an experiment and always has been. The Buddha’s teachings show us how we might live that experiment in the clearest and most compassionate way.

When we are not as consumed by suffering, we can connect with our natural capacity for empathy and compassion.

The more we’re living at odds with the truth, the more we suffer. The more we live along with it, the happier we are.

Awakening to your own joy can be as simple as taking delight in a gorgeous blooming flower, hearing the sound of your beloved’s voice, or noticing the way your favorite song soothes your heart.

An open heart is a conduit through which collective life can express its grief of uncertainty and loss.

Nothing in the world will ever protect us: not our partner, not our life circumstances, not our children. After all, other people are busy protecting themselves. If we spend our life looking for the eye of the hurricane, we live a life that is fruitless.

Our practice as Buddhists is not what style of meditation, which sutra, or which teacher we revere above all else. Our practice is to experience this single moment of faith and understanding, to abide in it, and to share it.

Facing the truth of our own death can bring us back to life.

There is a basic truth that when people are bad, even good material objects can cause harm to people at large; if people are moral and just, even harmful objects can become beneficial.

Spiritual practitioners thrive in unpredictable conditions, testing and refining the inner qualities of heart and mind. Every situation becomes an opportunity to abandon judgment and opinions and to simply give complete attention to what is.