Buddhist Women on a Path of Spiritual Awakening
Holding the Lotus to the Rock
Sariputta said (SN 21.1): “There is nothing in the world with whose change there would arise in me sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair.” It is hard to remember the Buddha’s teachings when the mind is beset with fear and anxiety. But we can…
Fall Apart, Fall Apart, Rise Anew
Intuitive wisdom develops gradually as we learn more and more to drop the story and view the flood of impermanence in the silence of the mind. Eventually we will be able to answer the question: what remains after the work of purification? A talk…
Reading: Therigatha – Arahant Subha Bhikkhuni’s Poem
A reading during Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat in 2016.
Reading: Sayadaw U Pandita – Mother Hen
A reading during Satipaññā Insight Meditation Toronto retreat in 2016.
Reading: Ajahn Chah – In the Dead of Night
Ajahn Chah describes his process of overcoming fear while staying in a charnel ground in Thailand and urges to try it out! What he means is not in the charnel ground, but right here wherever we are and with the ghosts of our own…
Be Like Bamboo
The jhana factors serve as antidotes to the five hindrances as well as supports in developing the Noble Eightfold Path. But they are not enough in and of themselves to establish wisdom. Studying the body and mind through samatha and vipassana, we come to…
Break Down
On the question of striving: early practice needs to be precise and strategic, focused on precepts, developing mindfulness, and faith in the Buddha’s awakening. Later, working in community, with support, one protects the process as it unfolds, while trying not to control, to let…
Who’s Sitting Under the Bodhi Tree?
The mind is so easily duped by its own delusion. By holding perceptions, views and opinions – our own, as well as others – as “uncertain”, and being circumspect, we can bear witness to experience as the Knowing Mind, unburdened by its conditioning. When…
Love Wisdom More Than Life
To bring the mind to peace, we must learn about all that makes it unpeaceful, unquiet. We learn how to prevent those things from arising, and how to deal with them if they do. Follow virtue. Stay close to spiritual friends, to the Buddha….
~ Dhammapada Verse 54