Buddhist Women on a Path of Spiritual Awakening
Ascending the Altar
What is renunciation? Patiently we learn how to let go of the thoughts and actions that enslave us to samsara. And we begin to understand what it takes to tame the ego and cultivate greater and greater compassion in its boundless quality. Through this…
Empty the Basket – Guided Meditation and Reflections
Let us hone our expertise to witness the charade of gain and loss arising each moment. Seeing the eight worldly winds, impermanent, not giving in when the mind perches in ‘self’, purify wrong view, empty the basket, and begin here where we are, balanced,…
Into the Quiet – Guided Meditation and Reflections
We go forth into the quiet of the heart, distant from the world, to glimpse the Unconditioned. We are alone but we are as if with all beings. There is no ‘one’ who wakes up, there is just awakening. It is freeing and it’s…
A Safe Domain: How the Quail Escaped a Hawk
The contemplative path of purifying the mind is the most important journey of all – inward. Just as the little quail that tricked a hawk, we no longer fall prey to the ‘maras’ of the world, safe in our proper ancestral domain of virtue….
The Inner Stopping
Wherever we go the mind does not remain happy – unless we fully awaken. How can we end the restless tides and remain inwardly stable, content within ourselves like the well-hewn wheel that stood still when it stopped rolling and did not fall down?…
Chopping and Burning the Tree of Emptiness
Too busy in the world, all entangled, we yearn to be free. So direct the mind to Nibbana – like a tree that leans to the East. And when it falls, it will fall in that direction. We too will arrive if we aim…
A Good Pair of Boots
We must not underestimate the significance of dedicating ourselves to the five precepts. Such a commitment to virtue provides a moral and ethical basis for life that will ultimately lessen our suffering. We find ourselves embodying qualities of truthfulness, kindness and care for ourselves…
Change for the Good
Are we ready to stop clinging, let go and trust? If we live with gratitude and change for the good, if we learn to really see, we will be able to listen from within and notice the true condition of the mind. We move…
Speaking of Violence
If we can deal with the craziness of the mind, we can help to decrease the craziness and violence of the world. But we have to be so patient and keep faith with the process of of cleaning up our own violence. Even when…
Practise like the barley reaper
In a dialogue between King Milinda and Venerable Nagasena, we hear the Buddha’s instruction on mental training and how to apply our allies of mindfulness, restraint and wisdom. Devoted to the training, we can overcome ignorance, take hold of the mind and cut off the…
~ Dhammapada Verse 54