Daily Dharma

The chance to practice the dharma may not come again. This is why the preciousness of human birth is the first and most important point. We mustn’t waste this life and die with regrets.

The Buddhist teachings say that when we can actually feel pain directly, we spontaneously let go, just as feeling the hot handle of a cast-iron skillet makes us let go.

If we are willing to look deeper into the mundane activities of everyday life, what reveals itself is the spiritual nature inherent to all things. 

For those of us who are sincere and disciplined yet struggle to see our own buddha-nature due to samsaric illusions or who practice inconsistently or only during holidays, there remains the assurance that even small efforts will ultimately lead to buddhahood.

What makes sense to some may not to others, but it may be what is most valuable for us as practitioners. You have to find your own way.

Nothing and no one owns you. No one is watching; no one is keeping score. Let go of whatever has its grip on you: concerns, hopes, fears.

How we treat ourselves and each other at the smallest scale is how the world begins to be shaped.

Objects alone don’t make the sacred. People do, and careful attention. The Buddha did not first taste enlightenment while meditating in a temple. He was sitting on a pile of straw outside, touching the earth, and seeing the morning star.

Magic is the imposition of will on reality, which is what artists do; they mold reality. Go to any artist’s home and you will see a living mandala.

If the dharma has always known that discomfort can be a threshold rather than an obstacle, then the question becomes where, in contemporary life, we might find the goad that moves us.