Love & Understanding

Today I want to pick up where we left off, continuing our exploration of the Noble Eightfold Path. So, just to recap, in my last article, A Way To Transform Your Suffering , I expressed that the Eightfold Path provides us with a means or a foundation and framework to support us in our pursuit of peace and freedom. And it does this by encouraging us to listen to and live in harmony with the Dharma ...

A useful philosophy contains more than a collection of words. The words must be made flesh. They must be lived. They must be embodied, felt, and experienced. Today, then, I will pick up from where I left off with the Four Noble Truths , which provides the conceptual framework for the Buddha’s life philosophy. And then, once we’ve refreshed ourselves a bit, I will move into the Noble Eightfold Path...

Three years have passed since I was introduced to Mother Ayahuasca in the Sacred Valley of Peru, where I met the astonishing Shipibo people. Today, I have returned home from my latest trip to the Amazon Rainforest, where once again I was humbled not just by the medicine but by the subtle yet profound art of being the Shipibo so gracefully radiate. It’s hard to unpack and conceptualize the lessons...

The Buddha taught only suffering and its end, which is expressed in the Four Noble Truths — the indispensable foundation embraced by all Buddhist traditions and lineages, no matter how far their metaphysics and methodologies may diverge. So, what are the Four Noble Truths and why are they applicable to you? That will be the topic of today’s episode.

Through my own practice of mindfulness, one thing continues to grow very clear: that there is no space between me and what is known, that everything inter-is. And as this direct insight strengthens, as the barriers between me and the objects of awareness dissolve, as I continually fall back into the single realm of knowing, into the glue and container of all things, a quite miraculous feeling of u...

You don’t need to search far and wide for the Divine connection. It’s that without beginning or end. See and feel – know directly – the love that both surrounds you and fills you. Know the Love that is you.

Because “I” can’t be removed from you, because it’s essential to you, only you can investigate it for yourself. So, go ahead, take a look. What is this thing you call “I”? Where is it? What is it like? What qualities does it have? What is its nature? Uhhh… Weird questions? Yeah, I know. “What do you mean ‘What is it?’ and ‘Where is it?’ It’s me, duh. I’m right here.” I know. But just humor me for...

It’s no secret everything changes. You know this, I know this, we all know this. We watch the sun rise and set. We feel the seasons turn. Our experience this morning isn’t the one here now. We know that entire species and civilizations have come and gone. Stars and galaxies are born and fade away. Not even the very fabric of space and time is stable. But how many of us really understand the implic...

Mindfulness practice is currently a fad in the West. And that’s wonderful — it’s great that, as a culture, we’re promoting more mindfulness and less mindlessness. But with its surge in popularity, there has also been a lot of misunderstanding as to what mindfulness is. The word as it’s used casually in English just doesn’t quite capture the fullness of the experiential state of mind the word point...

Wonder is the beginning. It is the space from which all things unfold. It gives birth to questions, it is the womb of understanding. It molds from the empty space of awareness all that can be known. Deb – my love, my partner, my human – recently held up a mirror for me. The humdrum of everyday life had gotten to me, and allowed sloth and torpor to take over. It robbed the light from my eyes. And s...

Vipassana, or insight meditation, is a practice of looking beyond the world of appearances, it’s a practice of looking directly at the nature of all things. It is sometimes translated as ‘clear knowing’ or ‘bare knowing,’ which I think is a useful way to think about it — to observe, to feel, to see clearly and directly the raw data of experience, to see things not as concepts or ideas but to know...

In today's episode, I highlight the power of beliefs by way of introducing myself and my story. Beliefs not only build temples, mosques, and synagogues. They build smartphones, spaceships, and self-driving cars. They determine what clothes we wear, what company we keep, and what food we eat. They establish LLCs and run courts of law. They orchestrate symphonies, fuel economies, and spark revolutio...