Essential Buddhist teachings to improve your mindfulness practice.
 What are the five aggregates? In Buddhism, they are the building blocks that we typically use to construct our sense of self. The Buddha classified the constituents of body and mind into five categories known as “the five aggregates of clinging”: form, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. In his book Satipatthana: The Direct Path … Read more
 Can you be an atheist and a Buddhist? From what I’ve read, I can tell you that seeking an answer to this question will surface two groups of people – those who’ll tell you that it’s possible and those who’ll tell you that it’s not. Among the former is Stephen Batchelor, the author of … Read more
As a lover of ancient wisdom, I’ve been slowly savoring the now classic Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings — an extraordinary portal into the minds of the greatest sages of the East, oscillating between the transcendent and the mundane in the most thought-shattering way possible. From short stories that … Read more
You don’t have to do it. You don’t have to take every thought in your head too seriously. It’s one of many gifts of meditation — a deep state of concentration and tranquility that keeps you open to life. This is what great meditation teacher Shunryu Suzuki (May 18, 1904–December 4, 1971) means when he … Read more