The ego is defenceless in the face of the forces of the universe. And because inherently it knows that it is born and dies and is therefore inherently unreliable – its mandate is to try to make things fixed and permanent and then to shore up the walls, add...
Assets Beyond Measure (The Pāramīs) The Adventure of Going Beyond Life is an ongoing adventure. Humanity’s path from ocean to trees to savannah to the internet has been one long journey of “going beyond”. Going beyond our current understanding is what we humans...
Everyone reading this is aware that we live in a society that is pervasively capitalistic. Merriam Webster defines capitalism as an “economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private...
We’d all like to make high-speed spiritual progress. The Buddha awakened, so surely we can also. Sometimes though it feels like we are swimming (or meditating) in a tub of molasses. I have a spiritual practice, I make efforts to be a good person – what’s holding me...
As I am getting ready to leave Clear Sky Retreat Center after being part of the Karma Yoga team, Cata and Sensei discuss with me some of the biggest challenges to maintaining an ongoing practice of Karma Yoga, or meditation in action through service. Their teaching...
Awakening, the great healing. The ongoing, mapped process of awakening is the ultimate spiritual healing. With awakening, the self is transcended, and thus the troubles of the self, of “me,” “my troubles,” are healed. Though any organism is inherently subject to decay...
An Interview with Dharma Teacher Achariya Doug Duncan on Exploring, Transcending, Surrendering & Awakening. Article by Brendan Joseph Ries, as Published in the Kyoto Journal Online Magazine, February 2014. Download the Kyoto Journal article Click to download...
Quantum physics as well as tradition Buddhist philosophy teach us that nothing in the universe remains the same for even a second. Thus we know that everything we hold and cherish will also pass on and out of our lives, if only at death. This may feel frightening...
I dream, I hope, I work, I love, I play, I dream, I eat. These verbs are all about me; working, hoping, dreaming, loving, eating all continue, even when there is no ‘me’. Who is this ‘me’? Or is it a what? Is ‘me’ a person, a thing, an idea, a feeling? It’s all of...
When you wake up in the morning you leave behind one world — the dreaming world — and find yourself in another world — waking life. These two worlds or states share similarities. In Tibetan Buddhism they’re two of six states termed ‘bardos’, or ‘in-between states’....
