Dharma Talks

The Buddha’s teaching encourages us to recognize and practice letting go of the idea of the body, the abstract picture of appearance and boundaries. We are invited to feel into sensation and the body’s own language: mysterious, ungraspable, and always in motion.

Mindfulness is a radical act of focusing the attention onto the present moment without judgment. When we cultivate awareness, we bring the practice off the cushion into everyday life. In the Sutra on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness  from the Pali canon, the Buddha instructs his disciples to begin all mindfulness practice with the breath. Let us “go to the forest, to the foot of the tree, or an empty room,” and breathe.

Koans and questions, impossible to keep perfectly, the Bodhisattva Vows are not a project and do not give us an ego boost. Rather, they offer us a life of moving from “yes,” responsive rather than reactive, rooted in belonging and freedom.

As he is dying, the Buddha invites his followers to make the teachings our true refuge. Contemplating our own mortality, we ask: What is unfinished? What do we fear? When we release our material and ego attachments, the dying process is an invitation to a final stage of growth and liberation.

How do we best support friends and family members in deep distress? Practice teaches us a love that is not based upon patching up the fragile ego. Practice teaches us to have faith in another’s Buddha nature, to embrace the moment without having to fix anything.