Finding happiness…

While revisiting Pema Chodron’s book on Happiness, I was reminded that the key to finding happiness is in studying how we make ourselves suffer. If we are clear how we create suffering it is much easier to generate more happiness in our lives. Everyone wants to...

Ocean mind…

A quote from Master Tang Hoi, the first Dhyana (Zen) master in Vietnam who compared the mind to an ocean. “Everything we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, feel or think flows into the ocean of our mind like thousands of rivers”. Our mind is like a vast ocean. We receive...

Your garden…

Whether we are aware of it or not every thought we have is creating our next moment. Our thoughts are like the seeds we plant in our garden of consciousness. Whatever we plant and nurture will grow into flowers. If you have every had a garden you know that you have to...

Consumption…

At my recent retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh I was reminded about mindful consumption. Typically when we think about consumption we consider food. However, there are other forms of consumption that we don’t reflect upon and have become desensitized to. In the Buddhist...

Here and now…

My teacher used to say “be here, now”. No matter what one is doing, being present is a blissful, expansive experience. When you are busy doing, how present are you in the doing or are you off somewhere jumping from thought to thought. It’s easy to let the mind run its...

Craving…

Everyone in their life has something they crave. It is like an addiction to something we long to have or poses. It could be some type of food (sweet or salty) we desire to have because it makes us feel so good. We may desire some material possession, such as a car,...