Witnessing the mind is not so simple. When we try to be a witness, a knower who watches and observes, it can take a while before we come to the place where the mind settles, where it is relaxed, present and aware enough to actually begin seeing things in the moment. Even then we might still not be skilled in seeing; it can take a long time. I spent years witnessing anger and letting it go, and it…

In his teachings on the foundations for open-heartedness, the Buddha spoke of the four brahmavihāras (sublime states of mind): mettā is the sense of goodwill, of well-wishing to all beings; karuṇā is compassion for the suffering of beings; muditā is joy or gladness for the success or good fortune of other beings; and upekkhā is equanimity or even-mindedness. The brahmavihāras enable us to relate t…

320. As an elephant in battle withstands arrows, I choose to endure verbal attacks from others. 321. Well-trained horses can be trusted in crowds, and are to be mounted by kings. Individuals who have trained themselves to withstand abuse will be valuable everywhere. 322. Impressive are horses or elephants which have been well-trained; but more impressive are individuals who have tamed themselves.…

As for the pain, that also becomes something you can approach with the tools you’ve learned from your technique. Try breathing through the tension around the pain. If the pain is in your knee, you can think of the breath coming in and out right at the knee. Or you can think of it going down the leg and through the pain in the knee and then out through the toes. Or if it’s already coming into the k…

We turn now to consider the practices that facilitate the penetration of Nibbāna. These practices include views – ways of regarding the world of experience. Our view may be unreliable as a means of seeing truth. A part of the path leading to Nibbāna includes the process of reflecting on descriptions of Nibbāna so as to gain clear understanding. The need for this sort of reflection derives from the…

Perhaps a good place to start contemplating the nature of Nibbāna is in the more mundane realm of things since, just as the Buddha opened his expression of the Four Noble Truths with the common and tangible experience of dukkha, unsatisfactoriness, it will be most helpful to begin this investigation within the realm of the familiar and then to work towards the more subtle and abstruse from there.…

For many years I had a kind of subliminal negativity going on; quietly grumbling away, usually about myself: ‘You’re not good enough. You’ve been meditating all these years, and still your mind wanders and you fall asleep. You’re never going to be any good.’ – those kinds of voices. Are they familiar … just quietly there, mumbling away, undermining any sense of well-being? It took me a long time t…

The differentiation between right and wrong is an especially meaningful one for us. With that comes success, failure, praise, blame, reward or punishment: there’s a big charge around getting it right or getting it wrong. Meanwhile direct experience – thoughts, sensations, emotions – is just what happens. It’s not based on right or wrong. Its sole fundamental quality is that it just happens. Our co…

So when we analyze the style and function of humor in the Canon, we have to remember that both style and function vary with the source. But even when we take these variations into consideration, the Canon’s humor has some overall features that make it distinctive. After all, the compilers of the Canon were the ones who chose which speech to report and which not to report, so when they are quoting…

The present moment is the place where we can recognize: There is the content of experience; there is something in the content that we find appealing—something that tempts us to make it our own; and there is a desire compelling us to grab onto that content. When we’re connected to our present-moment experience in this way, there is the wisdom that tells us, “I know this process of content-appeal-de…