Blog
Reflections from our teachers
The triad of gratification, danger, and escape is one of the Buddha’s most concise and simple teachings for investigating everyday lived experience. This formula can be applied to every single aspect of our experience....
The Power of Relational Awareness
Buddhist practice can easily be mistaken for a solitary affair in pursuit of enlightenment. Yet this path—and its key factor of mindfulness—is at its heart relational. We first learn about the Dharma from others,...
Encountering Māra
(In the style of Saṃyutta Nikāya – Linked Discourses with Nuns): Setting in Tipperary, Ireland. Then, early in the morning, the practitioner Vince dressed and packed for travel, he checked-in online for the flight...
Equanimity: Dancing with the Unexpected
Equanimity is a sublime yet powerful fruit of our practice. It is our capacity to be vulnerable and sensitive, yet never knocked down; dancing with the changing and unexpected circumstances of life rather than...
Wild Awake: The Wisdom of Nature
A few years ago, I had a bit of a Forrest Gump moment. I was sitting on the couch one evening in Vancouver, watching Netflix with my partner, when suddenly something came over me...
The Power of our Minds
Lately I have found myself inspired by reflecting on the power of our minds. And the teaching that each of us has the capacity to awaken and become a Buddha. That Buddha is actually...
Sati and the Relational Practice of Mindfulness
While it is clear that all of the path factors can be cultivated at all times, alone and with others, the relational practice of mindfulness merits special attention. When two or more are gathered...
An Experience is Not The Point
We might imagine that the Dharma points eventually to a profound experience (s) to transform our life. There is the potential to have a wide ranges of experiences. These include childhood, emotional, secular, religious,...
Giving Wisdom Space – Cultivating Clarity in Challenging Times
Recently I completed a 10 day fundraising walk in Palestine. Along with delightful nature and lovely connections, there were plenty of difficult moments; the weather went from too wet to too hot; my backpack...
Drop the Banana
In Thailand, here’s how hunters capture monkeys: They hollow out a coconut through a small hole about the size of a monkey’s hand when outstretched. They then put a banana inside the coconut hole...