Essential Buddhist teachings to improve your mindfulness practice.
In Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle writes that one of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called “die before you die.” Of course you know you’re going to die but that remains a mere future possibility until death enters your life through … Read more
We already know about the Buddha’s discovery of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. But what do we know about the time before that and the reasons that prompted the Buddha to leave his home and become a monk? These are some of the subjects taken up in a wonderful book titled … Read more
Nirvana is considered the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice and the pinnacle of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. But its exact definition remains ever elusive. “It has been said by one witty scholar that all we have to go on is our misconception of Nirvana, because until we have realised it … Read more
Did the Buddha say, “There is no self”? To answer this question, I turn to an article from Access to Insight written by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. He begins by saying that anatta, the Buddhist doctrine of no self, is one of the first major obstacles for Westerners trying to understand Buddhism. He writes: First, the idea … Read more
You are never in complete control of your life. Letting go of this illusion realigns you with the flow of your current circumstances and lets them work for you rather than against you. This is what mindfulness meditation can help you achieve by providing insight into the three marks of existence. Contrary to popular … Read more