Once we’ve abandoned doing evil, then even when we make merit only a bit at a time, there’s still hope that our perfections will grow full. Like a basin set upright out in the open: Even if rain falls only a drop at a time, there’s a chance that the basin will get full. But if we make merit without abandoning evil, it’s like putting a basin upside-down out in the open. When the rain falls, it stil…

The Buddha defined viriya as application to four things. The first is if an unwholesome state of mind arises, one recognizes it first, and then one strives to overcome it. For example, if anger arises, one recognizes “I am angry,” and then one strives to overcome that anger. The next aspect is if an unwholesome state of mind hasn’t yet arisen, then one strives to make sure that it doesn’t arise. I…

As we sit here during this retreat, we have to pay attention to things that are not at all interesting. They may even be unpleasant and painful. To endure things patiently rather than run off to find something interesting is a good discipline – to be able just to endure the boredom, the pain, the anger, the greed; all these things, instead of always running away from them. Patience is such an impo…

To lead your daily life by keeping constant supervision over the mind is a way of learning what life is for. It’s a way of learning how we can act so as to rid ourselves more and more of suffering and stress – because the suffering and stress caused by defilement, attachment, and craving are sure to take all sorts of forms. Only by being aware with true mindfulness and discernment can we comprehen…

There is a saying which expresses the relationship between wisdom and compassion: ‘Wisdom tells me I am nothing, compassion tells me I am everything, and in between my life flows.’ Wisdom teaches us about impermanence and the absence of self-hood. Compassion makes us aware that despite our impermanence and lack of a self, even though we are separate bodies, we are all interconnected and affect eac…

Why get married? Vows: this was about solemnizing, a strong binding. And that meant, as I commented in my address, stretching the softer aspects of love to include patience, compassion and a resolute act of faith in each other’s capacity to work through the challenges. An enjoyable partnership had just turned into a potentially deepening union. …in this life the value of a vow can be experienced e…

…In Western psychology, ego-development is impossible without assuming a clear sense of self. But in Buddhism, with its realization that there is no clear dividing line between your own true happiness and that of others, the underlying assumption of ego-development is a clear sense of cause and effect, seeing which actions lead to suffering, which ones lead to short-term happiness, which ones lead…

So as you meditate, it’s important to understand that you’re not here to suppress an emotion, to deny that it exists. You want to be very clear about what’s going on in the mind, but at the same time you want to learn how to use the mind wisely, to approach your emotions wisely. When fear, greed, anger, or delusion come up in the mind, it’s not necessarily helpful to express them outside because s…

In Buddhist teachings love is looked at in terms of the toxic or nourishing mental states present in the minds of lovers and loved. A range of emotions may be distinguished. At its coarsest level love may be narcissistic and demanding; at its most sublime love is selfless and unconditioned. Personal love tends to oscillate from one end of this scale to the other. Buddhists are taught that the more…