Buddhist Women on a Path of Spiritual Awakening
Feast of Patience
Can we not give vent to the wanting mind, not blame conditions nor allow discontentment to grow? Develop patience and persevere on the path. Know things as they are and accept them. Patience is the highest austerity. So change gears, and move away from…
Virtue Goes Full Circle
Virtue creates a force in the heart, a field of goodness, from generosity to joy to enlightenment. Bring each moment back to awareness. Once there is joy in the heart, the mind finds ease to go to its depths. Be your own doctor, self-examine,…
The Teacher is Present – Vesak Joy and Dhamma Refuge
To celebrate the Buddha’s life is to be his disciple in enlightenment. Every day becomes a day of Vesak when we emulate the Buddha’s virtues and follow his gradual training in Dhamma-Vinaya and spiritual warrior-ship. We vow to purify the mind, realize the vision…
Spiritual Athlete
Every Canadian knows Terry Fox, a teenage athlete who lost his leg to cancer, continued to train as a runner and ran across Canada with one leg before he succumbed to his illness. His mission was to raise money for cancer research so others…
The Torah and Triple Gem
An autobiographical portrait of Ayya Medhanandi’s life, from her meeting with her first teacher in India in her early twenties to her career as a nutritionist and going forth to become a Theravada Buddhist nun. She notes the striking similarities between the tenets of…
Delusion is Not the Way Out
How can we have compassion for others without falling apart? The Buddha’s path of awakening teaches us how to disarm our internal armour, to be harmless. This will be for us a true basis for following precepts and thereby developing enough inner quiet to…
On the wings of the breath
Using the breath to move into the silent space in the heart and attentively following its rhythm, the breath becomes our whole world. We let go of all objects that arise, all thought, as we stay present and aware in the simple current of…
A Little Renunciation
How training the mind in following precepts, such as the rules regarding the use of four monastic requisites – food, robes, shelter, and medicines, can win us greater patience, faith, gratitude, calm, courage, and mindfulness. Such ways of renunciation test our commitment to the…
A Gift from the Sea – Unbroken Pāua Shell and Consummate Trust
There are many skills and restorative qualities needed for us to grow in our spiritual work. Let us not underestimate the essential ingredient of mettā. This universal quality of love will unfailingly nurture the unfolding of the Noble Eightfold Path. It enhances our energy…
Dwell in Intrinsic Emptiness – The Liberating Quality of Loving-kindness
What are the prerequisites and supports for walking such a path of awakening? Kindness and a loving forgiveness rank with those qualities that are foremost. They allow us to repair the seemingly unforgivable, to heal what we could not see or wish to see,…
~ Dhammapada Verse 54