It is quite easy to be critical of invited guests who come up with last minute excuses for why they cannot attend your party. You were kind enough to invite them and why they would refuse your invitation is puzzling, and their excuses are poor. There are other things that can be put off so [...]
What is fair? A friend likes to say, a fair is what comes to town once a year. Life is not fair, and we all know that, and yet there is still a sense of outrage when unfairness strikes: the person who cuts in front of you and gets the last movie ticket, or the [...]
If our thoughts are good, the words and the deeds will also be good. The results of good thoughts and actions will be good karma. This good karma generated will always follow us like our shadows that never leave us. Those that create bad karma are doomed to experience unhappiness. You cannot have bad thoughts [...]
Of course you know that we are all nothing, or maybe you do not know this. We try to be something until we know better. Yes, you have your name and maybe a fancy title at work, your property and your bank account. You may be quite powerful in the material world and have great [...]
When we speak of learning, I do not mean adding to things that you already know. You can really only learn my friends when there you possess no attachment to the past as knowledge. This means that when you experience something new that you do not color the experience as something in terms of the [...]
Those who seek fame seek only to bolster the ego. When the ego is bolstered, sensual desire is in control. When sensual desire is in control, the mind loses discernment. When the mind loses discernment, we subject ourselves to needless suffering.
By submitting oneself to the desire of being praised by others, one is forfeiting their [...]
In order for us to learn openly and deeply, we must never enter the learning process with the thought “I know”. It has been said that a beginners mind has unlimited possibilities, the mind of an expert has few. We must let go of prejudices, pre-conceptions, and opinions. Our mind must be a blank canvas [...]
A pollster who was analyzing our culture concluded that religious sentiment in America was broad, but not deep. He summarized by saying, superficiality is the curse of modern times. A passing familiarity with your path is not enough. Just as a seed must take root and develop over time before it is fully grown, so [...]
Often, you will hear talk about zero tolerance. A fourth-grader was expelled from school for bringing a steak knife to school to cut her steak she had brought for lunch and there was zero tolerance for weapons at the school. A high school senior was not permitted to graduate because she was found with a bag [...]
The Buddha was not interested in discussing unneeded metaphysical questions which are purely speculative and which create imaginary problems or stress in the mind. Buddha considered them as a ‘wilderness of opinions.’ Many of his own disciples were not pleased that he would not speak to some issues. Often, we create our own imaginary problems [...]