Even though it is still winter, I can feel the season changing and the days becoming longer. It is not dark now when I finish my morning meditation and it has only just gotten dark when we begin the group meditation sessions in the evening.  This year right on the equinox when the season pivots Read the full article…

When I first came to Buddhism I was one of those people who thought that chanting and puja were meaningless and useless rituals.     But I don’t think that now. I was spending time in monasteries and because I wanted to be polite, I went along with what everyone was doing and gave it Read the full article…

One of the most popular chants is the Karaniya Metta Sutta. It gives us wonderfully explicit instructions on how to develop loving kindness and radiate it to all of the world. The beginning portion gives a list of 14 qualities of the heart-mind that need to be cultivated if we aspire to being skilled in Read the full article…

One of my teachers described meditation as mental hygiene; the cleansing and cleaning of the heart-mind. and like physical hygiene, most beneficial if done frequently and regularly.   It is not the habit of our culture to engage in regular mental hygiene, and yet once upon a time our culture did not embrace physical hygiene Read the full article…