I am walking on a high-wire tightrope. The next ten seconds are the most important moments in my life. At any moment, I can slip and fall off into a fit of rage or a pit of despair. I come here for tools to help me keep my balance. This sentiment was expressed by an…

Do not chase after what is gone, Nor yearn for what is yet to be, For the past has been left behind, And the future cannot be reached. Those states that are before you now — Have insight into every one! Invincibly, unshakably, Know that well, again and again. –– Majjhima Nikaya 131-3; trans. A….

“[In meditation: The Buddha] seats himself cross-legged, his body held erect and establishes mindfulness in front of him. He does not occupy his mind with self-affliction, or the affliction of others, or the affliction of both; he sits with his mind set on his own welfare, on the welfare of others, on the welfare of…

“Just as in the great ocean there is but one taste — the taste of salt — so in the Dhammavinaya [these teachings] there is but one taste — the taste of freedom.”  — Buddha Over this past year, all four of our sitting groups have been studying the Eight Fold Path, a core teaching…

Our collective world is churning, and many of us are finding ways to act on behalf of our highest aspirations and values. It seems like a good time to reflect on the role and qualities of our efforts in these endeavors. Shanti Deva, an eighth century Buddhist scholar and poet, uses the metaphor of wind…

Though I am thin, sick, And lean on a stick I have climbed up Vulture Peak. Robe thrown down Bowl turned over, [I] leaned on a rock, Then the great darkness opened. – Citta’s awakening poem from The Therigatta from The First Buddhist Women by Susan Murcott After many years of steadily presenting their desire and…