I invite new and regular visitors to take a look at my updated and expanded Metta Instruction page. There you will find many helpful articles you can read online or download—articles such as these: Ajahn Brahmavmso Teaches Loving-kindness Metta—The Healing Power of Visualizing and Radiating Love Toward Others Bringing Metta to Daily Life—A Talk by […]
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Tag Archives: open-heart
What is Our Life About? (poem and music)
2011/08/26 
3 Comments
Few dharma teachers speak to my heart as does Ezra Bayda. His books Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life and At Home in the Muddy Water: A Guide to Finding Peace Within Everyday Chaos came into my life when I really needed to learn more about the gentle wisdom of opening up to what is […]
Continue reading Coming to Terms with the Father Who Lives Within You
2011/06/05 0 Comments
Although this blog has mainly focused on the Budddhdharma, the teachings of the Buddha, it’s never been limited to that. Over time, I’ve shared skillful spiritual teachings, poems, and even music, that reflect humanity’s quest to come into a complete humanhood. I also strongly feel that the best in Western psychology powerfully complements the wisdom […]
Continue reading How long will it take to bring our Narcissus off the cross?
2011/03/14 0 Comments
As I promised in my previous post, I am going to share passages from Stephen Levine’s spiritual autobiography, Turning Toward the Mystery. See: Everyone is Just Trying to Get Born Before They Die I found these passages very helpful in understanding how we identify with our pain and suffering and how letting go liberates our hearts. […]
Continue reading Pema Chodron – Renunciation as saying “yes!” to life
2011/03/11 5 Comments
Trungpa Rinpoche once said, “Renunciation is realizing that nostalgia for samsara is full of shit.” Renunciation is realizing that our nostalgia for wanting to stay in a protected, limited petty world is insane. One you begin to get the feeling of how big the world is and how vast our potential for realizing life is, […]
Continue reading Choose life! Choose love! Choose to live!
2011/02/11 9 Comments
“Most people can look back over the years and identify a time and place at which their lives changed significantly. Whether by accident or design, these are the moments when, because of a readiness within us and a collaboration with events occurring around us, we are forced to seriously reappraise ourselves and the conditions under […]
Continue reading “The Journey”- A Poem for Beginning a New Year by Mary Oliver
2011/01/01 1 Comment
Mary Oliver is a poet I often turn to for comfort, inspiration, and insight. This poem, “The Journey,” just might be my favorite. For some time now, I’ve read it every year on New Year’s Day. It speaks of great beginnings—of quiet revolution!—of starting the great journey we all have to begin some day, if […]
Continue reading The Marriage of the Princess and the Dragon-A Dharma Story
2010/12/30 4 Comments
I’ve been thinking about “dragons” recently and thought I’d share this wonderful retelling of a Swedish fairy tale by dharma teacher Jack Kornfield from his wonderful bookAfter the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path. We all have our own “dragons” in our hearts. May this simple tale help us […]
Continue reading A Buddhist Meditation on the “Emptiness” of Christmas
2010/12/24 3 Comments
Although my wife and I don’t formally celebrate Christmas in terms of traditional Christian beliefs, we both love this season and the many good associations we have with this time of the year. Some of this is carry-over, no doubt, from our Christian upbringing, but looking past the outward forms of celebration, I think there’s […]
Continue reading A Buddhist Grace for Thanksgiving
2010/11/23 10 Comments
A Timeless Thanksgiving Message from Thich Nhat Hanh “We like the idea of being thankful to the cosmos, to everything that offers itself to us as food. That is why in Plum Village we organize a Thanksgiving Day, and we address our thanks to four objects: first of all to our father and our mother, […]
Continue reading Metta-the Healing Power of Visualizing and Radiating Love Toward Others
2010/11/23 4 Comments
Here is a unique teaching on metta, or loving-kindness meditation, by Acharya Buddharakkhita from “Mettá: The Philosophy and Practice of Universal Love.” In this teaching, Buddharakkhita focuses specifically on how to use visualization and thought-radiation to embrace others in universal love and goodwill. This teaching presents the classic sequence of beginning with loving oneself, and […]
Continue reading Hatred Can Never Bring the Changes Our Hearts Long For
2010/10/29 0 Comments
“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.” The Buddha ♥♥♥ “When we attack injustice, cruelty, and suffering with intolerance and loathing, we make the mistake of believing that hatred can generate compassion and goodness. Hatred is suffering, and can only perpetuate suffering, […]
Continue reading Thich Nhat Hanh on Loving Ourselves by Looking Deeply into Ourselves
2010/10/25 9 Comments
SELF-LOVE From Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh “Until we are able to love and take care of ourselves, we cannot be of much help to others.” We begin practicing this love meditation on ourselves May I be peaceful, happy and light in body and spirit. May I be safe and free from injury. […]
Continue reading Krishnamurti-Fear of Death is Really Fear of Life
2010/10/23 2 Comments
Death & Life J. Krishnamurti You cannot be frightened of the unknown because you do not know what the unknown is and so there is nothing to be afraid of. Death is a word, and it is the word, the image, that creates fear. So can you look at death without the image of death? […]
Continue reading Yes, God is Gay-and Straight, and Black, White, and a Flower!
2010/10/18 3 Comments
The spate of suicides and deaths of gay and lesbian young people reported in the news recently has broken my heart and the hearts of many. But these tragic stories are but the tip of the iceberg: In in “Death of California youth puts focus on rise in antigay bullying,” the Christian Science Monitor wrote: […]
Continue reading A Buddhist prayer for the well-being and happiness of all beings
2010/09/23 7 Comments
I recently came across this beautiful metta, or loving-kindness meditation by the dhamma teacher Venerable Visuddhàcàra One could certainly call it a prayer, although in Buddhist prayer there is no appeal to a supreme being. Rather, it’s a deep and earnest aspiration and wish for happiness from one being’s heart to the hearts of all […]
Continue reading Kabir-“I Said To The Wanting-Creature Inside Me”-Poem and Music
2010/09/15 1 Comment
Here is another beautiful poem from the Indian mystic and poet Kabir. It’s called “I Said To The Wanting-Creature Inside Me.” May this poem, and the music that follows it, inspire you to empty your life of whatever would keep you from the happiness of being truly present in what you are! I Said To […]
Continue reading How to accept our faults without falling into self-condemnation or inaction
2010/09/13 4 Comments
Here are some more great teachings from Buddhist teacher Ayya Khema. If you, like me, often have to deal with self-condemnation and self-hatred because of continual personal failings, this article should be a big help in balancing seeing what needs to change in us and accepting everything in us without self-condemnation. Accepting Oneself Ayya Khema […]
Continue reading Coming to grips with the causes of suffering-the heart’s real work
2010/09/13 3 Comments
Ayya Khema is a wonderful Theravadan teacher who brought a remarkable love and light to her service as a nun in the Theravadan tradition. I highly recommend her book Who is My Self: A Guide to Buddhist Meditation. The following is an excerpt from a set of twelve dhamma talks entitled “All of Us: Beset by […]
Continue reading Sitting for hours in meditation is not necessary
2010/09/10 5 Comments
I’ve been enjoying the book “Voices of Insight” this week. The book is subtitled: “Teachers in the West Share Their Wisdom, Stories, and Experiences of Insight Meditation.” Because my entry into the dharma was through insight meditation, it’s a book I treasure and return to often. Since I’ve read the book. I’ve been jumping around, […]
Continue readingMay All Beings Be Happy
- Looking at the Ninth Zen Precept-I Do Not Indulge In Anger
- True God, True Buddha
- The Difference Between Compassion and “Idiot Compassion”
- Ajahn Brahmavamso teaches Loving-kindness Meditation
- Now-and-Zen-Are you still carrying her?
- A Buddhist Mantra based on the Prayer of St. Francis
- Mindfulness of Breathing-The Anapanasati Sutta
- Buddhist Forgiveness-When We Have Hurt Another-Part 3
- Practicing the Middle Way-not too much, not too little
- Healing the Body with Mindfulness of Breathing
- Look at the Three Characteristics in Terms of Actions
- Thich Nhat Hanh – Healing Through Resting in the Breath
- How Metta Can Help You When Meditation is Hindered by Overwhelming Feelings
- The Importance of Taking the “Should” out of Spiritual Practice
- Can We “Choose” to Be Happy? No—and Yes!
- Ken Mcleod on how to use Thich Nhat Hanh’s Five-Step Method of Emotional Releasing
- Non-resistance and the Art of Resisting without Resisting!
- Don’t be fooled! There is a Way and We Can Walk It!
- The Importance of Compassion in Assessing Our Dharma Progress
- Jesus and the Buddha on Good Friday
Metta Refuge 