Minds need a context. Mind needs fire and water, breath and ritual, it needs stories and song… it needs to establish a living relationship with those that came before and those yet to come, to offer in devotion and to enact its place in the cosmos. Such realizations return us to the sacredness of form. We find that all of the supposedly ‘non-essential’, ritual, form-based aspects of tradition actually architect a mind that has true fullness

In Buddhist traditions, mindfulness is not limited to meditation; it applies to the entire path. Moreover, mindfulness cannot be regarded as something purely instrumental…

Mindfulness functions as a foundational ethical practice in Patrul Rinpoche’s Words of My Perfect Teacher. Sustained mindfulness, meta-awareness, and self-examination are essential to cultivating moral agency and embodying the ethos of the Great Perfection, ultimately leading to the realization of Dzogchen’s “instantaneous awareness.”

Experiment and have fun with it.

Rituals can be an artistic process, a meditation, a communal celebration, or a simple act of observation, according to Kate Southworth, a London-based artist whose works are rooted in ritual. “Rituals often have an intention,” Southworth said. “I think the framing of that intention to be as important as its enactment.”

The article explains that rituals—unlike productivity-driven routines—help people instill a sense of calm and sustain mindfulness by imbuing ordinary actions with intention and meaning. In this way, rituals can stabilize life and foster connection in an otherwise distracted, fast-paced world.

mindfulness is proposed to introduce flexibility in the generation of cognitive appraisals by enhancing interoceptive attention, thereby expanding the scope of cognition to facilitate reappraisal of adversity and savoring of positive experience. This process is proposed to culminate in a deepened capacity for meaning-making and greater engagement with life.

An attempt at explaining mindfulness through the lens of “positive thinking.”

Participation in the program predicted increases in subjective well-being and mindfulness over time compared to the control group. Regardless of condition, frequency of meditation predicted lower psychological inflexibility and higher mindfulness, well-being, and progress toward values. Length of meditation session predicted a greater ability to observe experience, and prior meditation experience predicted greater nonreactivity to experience.

The faithful succeed, not the faithless. The ethical succeed, not the unethical. The energetic succeed, not the lazy. The mindful succeed, while the unmindful do not.

Nandiya the Sakiyan moves to Sāvatthī to be near the Buddha. At the end of the rains, he asks the Buddha’s advice on how to live and the Buddha outlines a series of meditations for cultivating Right View.

We are all backlit by completeness.

When it comes to mindfulness cultivated on its own, that is, when prominence is given to mindfulness itself during formal meditation or daily life practice, then this can be expected to result in a broad state of mind that enables an open monitoring of what is taking place.

If he strikes an elephant, he does it carefully…

When the Buddha teaches, he respects his audience.

It’s holding a little, obsidian shard of the experience of being human. And because it’s gone into print, other people can read it and they can laugh with me at all our hope and uselessness

The poem is the evidence of the survival. And that comes as a great comfort when we’re not sure if we’ll survive what has been asked of us. I have come to really value this quality of humility as something that helps me get through the day.

… all the things Cal doesn’t get to do. I want to curse

Although this is a matter of preparing and serving meals, the tenzo is not just “the cook.”

A beautiful and classic (13th century) essay on the Zen of running the monastery kitchen.

An alternate translation by Griffith Foulk can be found on The Zen Site.

… among practitioners, Zazen is affectionately known as “just sitting”

A brief introduction to West Coast Zen.

Genuine dharma practice is not separate from life. Generally, when everything is going well, anyone can appear to be a good dharma practitioner. However, when things go wrong, when adversity strikes, that is the real test

Restraint of the sense faculties, Kuṇḍaliya, when developed and cultivated, fulfils the three kinds of good conduct.

On the pivotal role of sense restraint in establishing both virtuous conduct and mindfulness.

This is what we’re trying to do in meditation: we’re recalibrating our whole way of experiencing ourselves and our life

The way that we express our feelings is probably the major work of translation that we all do in our life.

How to translate Buddhist ideas into practice.

That tree doesn’t need to be more than the tree. A tree just needs to be a tree. But our society always asks us to be more, right? Can’t we just be a human? Can we just be who we are?

Buddhism is a middle course, a via media; pragmatic and innovative

A smartly written introduction to the sociology of Buddhism from the inside looking out.

… the time for discovering Buddha directly, you must remain alone

A short poem on overcoming our barriers and sticking to the practice.

… slender citrine lip onto which I place, gently, this first handful of hair

You might wish to drink the nectar of calm abiding…

Be free from even so much as a single thought that is deceived

A short admonition to transcend the concerns for gain and loss, etc and to attain the true aim of “non-dual” practice

A good sutta is one that inspires you to stop reading it.

A few words of advice on how to read the Suttas.

Here in Dzogpachenpo, we settle, without contriving, in what we call the essence of mind

A simple encouragement to cultivate simplicity of awareness.

Transcribed from a series of YouTube videos, this short booklet concisely describes the practice as it’s taught in the Mahasi vipassana tradition.

For those practicing intensively according to this booklet, I encourage you to sign up for one-on-one instruction here.

There is also a sequel to this booklet.

I do recommend actually reading this paper. It has a good summary of other research done on meditation and a rather thoughtful analysis section. It’s less dense and jargon-heavy than other papers I’ve reviewed and gives a good window into the state of scientific research on Buddhist meditation circa 2012.

Thought is the source of desire.

A fairy sings a love song for the Buddha, and Sakka asks a few deep questions.

There is a way of developing immersion further

Developing convergence for pleasure, understanding, mindfulness, and for ending the defilements.

An instructed noble disciple also meets gain and loss, disrepute and fame, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain.

The eight worldly conditions in detail.

… use these five methods to completely get rid of resentment when it has arisen towards anyone

Five reflections to eliminate enmity in brief.