OUR MAIN AFFLICTION The following is an adaptation of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Dharma teaching. Our main afflictions in this modern world are not suffering per se, or any kind of negative feelings. Our main affliction is that we don’t know how to handle suffering, its causes, and consequences constructively to achieve equanimity. So, what do […]
Awakening: what is it? & how to experience it? What is it? Being Awakened or Enlightened means to free ourselves from our permanent daydreaming state that is, not being a prisoner of our wandering mind-made fictional world main source of “suffering”. How? 1)Directly in a mindful way, by observing, then by letting them go, our […]
The Second Noble Truth (Part 2) Last time we were talking about the second noble truth, we started to examine the cause of Dukkha. The Buddha mentioned greed, aversion, and delusion as the three poisons, which bring problems for us and in the world. Today we will look at delusion or ignorance as one of […]
Our addiction to conceptualizing, and interpreting life, and its content. Do we always need to conceptualize, analyze, interpret, judge, and label everybody, and everything that comes into our endless thinking? Yes, when a decision has to be made for whatever reason. But these situations are rare, and yet, out of around 110,000 thoughts /day that […]
Bursting our mental bubble The stronger we are attached to our verbal, mental, and emotional habits to people, things, and situations, the more refractory, shallow, and lifeless we become to factual, genuine surrounding realities. It is like living in a mind-made bubble full of a mental/emotional virtual world created by “the thinker me” rather than […]
When there is no answer Quite often we question: “ why?…why?….how comes!……I don’t understand this, that, her, him !……etc…… ……..because we have been educated to find answers, and get an opinion at all costs, all the time about almost everything, about everybody. Having an opinion on almost anything is an important skill while chatting […]
Only impermanence is permanent Asked what was the most important message of his 50 years of teaching, the Buddha, without hesitation, replied to these words. “Everything is transient, work diligently to appreciate and experience your impermanence.” It was his last words a few minutes before dying from mushroom poisoning. As Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki […]
The secret of life is to die before we die Death will evaporate if you don’t be too attached to all that stuff that is not the real you. What is not you is how your ego is defining itself, and what your mind-driven self-talk is saying. Examples: Possessions, the work you do, social status […]
The impossible task of doing nothing. Zen says: “Doing nothing is doing something called nothing.” How often you are doing nothing? Never because: We have mandatory duties of all sorts all day long. On top of it, we are creating our abusive to-do list, and engaging in ongoing multi-tasking. Our body and mind […]
The Second Noble Truth Part 1 In the First Noble Truth, the Buddha explained about Dukkha. Whether we call it suffering, disatisfactoriness, or uneasiness, the fact is that Dukkha is pervasive, life comes with painful challenges and difficulties for everyone. What causes Dukkha? In the Second Noble Truth, the Buddha explains that tanha is the […]
