I’d like to share one of my favorite quotes. I find them while surfing the web, reading a book, or doing research for one of my articles. As someone who’s passionate about writing, I like to keep these small reminders front and center because of their ...

“One uncomfortable truth about being human is that we know there is a future and it is uncertain,” write Susan M. Orsillo and Lizabeth Roemer in their book The Mindful Way through Anxiety. Then they add, “Planning and preparing for events in the future...

I’d like to share one of my favorite quotes. I find them while surfing the web, reading a book, or doing research for one of my articles. As someone who’s passionate about writing, I like to keep these small reminders front and center because of their ...

If you look at current news headlines, you’ll be overwhelmed with an unfathomable amount of violence and tragedy happening in the world right now. But even in countries not afflicted by poverty, disease, and military conflict, there remains a vast, uns...

How often do we slow down enough to let another person truly be seen? We talk about wanting authentic relationships, yet we habitually condense lives into surface evaluations. As Wayne Dyer noted, "Judgments prevent us from seeing the good that lies be...

I’d like to share one of my favorite quotes. I find them while surfing the web, reading a book, or doing research for one of my articles. As someone who’s passionate about writing, I like to keep these small reminders front and center because of their ...

I’d like to share one of my favorite quotes. I find them while surfing the web, reading a book, or doing research for one of my articles. As someone who’s passionate about writing, I like to keep these small reminders front and center because of their ...

WebMD is one of the leading healthcare publishers in the United States. Its core mission is to bring you the most objective and trustworthy health information. The WebMD content staff includes individuals who hold advanced degrees in journalism, medica...

Do you work in a high-stress job? Is your day packed with back-to-back meetings—some with people who aren’t exactly the easiest to deal with? Or maybe you spend hours in front of a screen with little human interaction (which can be stressful in its own...

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (b. December 7, 1927) is an internationally recognized author and Buddhist meditation teacher. He arrived in the United States in 1968 and later founded the Bhavana Society in West Virginia, a community of monastics and laype...

“Happiness slips from our grasp as we chase other things.” I was sitting at my kitchen table, holding a cup of coffee, when those words from Thich Nhat Hanh’s book “Transformation and Healing” stopped me cold. At the time, my evenings followed a famili...

Scholar-monk Bhikkhu Analayo shared intimate details of his daily practice, emphasizing the importance of death meditation and the realization of impermanence as an anchor of Buddhist spirituality. Seated alongside Daniel T. Aitken, CEO of Wisdom Publi...

“Be yourself.” “Trust yourself.” “Love yourself.” At the heart of all such sentiments lies an unshakable belief that the quality of your relationships with others depends on the quality of your relationship with yourself. Hence, the famous saying, “To ...

Although I own both devices, I prefer a dumbphone to a smartphone. It sounds counterintuitive, but that’s how I’m able to conserve one of the most scarce mental resources: my attention. Instead of scrolling through social media feeds, I spend my time r...

I’d like to share one of my favorite quotes. I find them while surfing the web, reading a book, or doing research for one of my articles. As someone who’s passionate about writing, I like to keep these small reminders front and center because of their ...

Ancient scriptures of Theravada Buddhism are one of the best ways to learn more about the Buddha’s teachings. And the most prolific writer in this field is Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. A kindly man has observed that Buddhist monk Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi presents to ...

In a preface to one of her bestselling books, Pema Chodron (b. July 14, 1936) revealed how the paradox of productive inactivity helped her write and be creative like never before. Chodron felt she needed to take a time off “before fully appreciating” w...

Years ago, I worked alongside a man named Patrick in the buzzing corridors of a wireless network operator’s customer service call center. Every morning, I would watch Patrick prepare his desk for the shift with a precise intensity. Before he even logge...

Bhikkhu Analayo (b. 1962) was ordained as a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka in 1995 and completed his PhD on satipatthana at the University of Peradeniya in 2000. Currently, he is primarily focused on meditation practice and contributes to the Encyclopaedia...

Parting ways with a dear friend is never easy. Nothing can match the joy of shared memories, of silly quarrels and reconciliations and trials endured together. But everything changes and nothing stands still. Bit by bit, it comes over us that life goes...

“I will fail this test.” “I will be uncomfortable at the party.” “I think she’ll hate me for saying this.” Worrying about future events makes you self-critical. The ability to consider possible outcomes is not always bad: it can help you face any possi...

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (b. December 7, 1927) is an internationally recognized author and Buddhist meditation teacher. He arrived in the United States in 1968 and later founded the Bhavana Society in West Virginia, a community of monastics and laype...

Jeff Wilson is a professor of religious studies and East Asian studies at Renison University College, part of the University of Waterloo. Wilson has authored several books and numerous articles exploring the intersection of Buddhism and North American ...

I firmly believe that negativity doesn’t work. Pema Chödrön’s tonglen meditation has strengthened this conviction by teaching me how to use the power of visualization to breathe in suffering and breathe out joy. Whenever I practice this technique, I’m ...

Stephen Batchelor (b. April 7, 1953) is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular approach to Buddhism. He considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutabl...

I made a lot of mistakes in my personal and professional life. When given the opportunity, I tried to correct them. Yet I don’t regret any of it. Everything I said or did eventually led me to the path I’m walking right now — the path of reading, writin...

“You and your Buddha, why don’t you stick to the religion you were born with?” Jack Kerouac’s mother said when her son tried to explain Buddhism. This is exactly what Piper Ratliff feared her parents would say to her when she confessed to lying about h...

You’ve clicked on this article because a typical reading list includes from five to ten books, and you don’t have time to read that many right now. I’ve been there. This issue is further complicated by the fact that Buddhism has many schools that may i...

As a lay follower of the Buddha, I sometimes think about enlightenment. “What does it feel like to live as an enlightened person?” I ask myself before I close my eyes and sit down to meditate. It’s not a question that comes up often in my daily practic...

It has been said that solitude is the place of purification. It has also been said that the great omission in American life is solitude … that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incinerator of the spirit. Indeed, enjo...

I was listening to “Touching the Eternal,” a recording of seven-day India retreat organized by a spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. Toward the end of the audio book, what I assume was the last day of the retreat, a woman rose up from the audience to offe...

When the slump takes hold, my instinct is always to hide. I retreat to the familiar shelter of my couch, pulling the blanket to my chin, and reach for the remote. The glowing screen has a promise: here is relief without friction. Here is a place where ...

Since starting my meditation practice, I’ve made a habit of observing my inner critic. As a result, I’ve noticed that its most insidious tendency is to weave all kinds of stories around certain situations and people I meet. Usually, those stories are n...

Our next community meeting is scheduled for Oct. 19, 2025. It will start at 9 a.m. PST and will last for 30-45 minutes. During our time together, we’ll discuss teaching meditation to friends and family. Think of it as an opportunity to meet new people ...

What are the five natural laws in Buddhism? I came across this concept while researching equanimity meditation, which helps us achieve a balance of mind that’s completely free from reactivity. It does so by making us visualize different people, such as...

Much has been written about lovingkindness, compassion, and altruistic joy in my previous articles. Now we turn to equanimity, the last of the four brahmavihara meditations, also known as the four sublime states of mind. The most important thing to kee...

The first thing people usually learn about Buddhism is that it’s aimed at ending human suffering. This is what newcomers like to discuss online when trying to deepen their understanding. And this is what one Redditor did when he asked, “If life has suf...