Different traditions offer different benefits for different people at different times. But they all point to the same place. The difference in approach is usually the object of meditation. Some traditions focus on a mental image – a word, a sound, a color, a concept. Some traditions focus on a question – Who am I? What is mind? What is death? And some traditions focus on sensations such as breath or environment. Mental images give the mind something to focus on – but it's only a mental construct, so the mind learns to focus, but it doesn't practice experiencing its surroundings. Meditating on a philosophical question feeds hungry brains, and it keeps them focused – grinding abstractions sharpens the intellect – but it also disconnects the mind from the physical reality around it. Perhaps the most accessible approach is breath meditation because its core purpose is to bridge mind and body by focusing attention on the ever-present rhythm of life, the pattern of breath. The mind anchors itself to the body amid the flowing current of continuous breath. Continue reading "If Buddhism promotes oneness, why are there so many types of meditation?"

Sotae'san once met an old couple on their way to temple. They were going to pray for Buddha to help their troubled daughter-in-law. But why go to a Buddha statue, Sot'aesan asked them, when you're surrounded by living Buddhas? Why pray for someone else's enlightenment when you can achieve it together? Your daughter-in-law is a living Buddha, so make your offerings directly to her, the same as you would to a Buddha statue. See as she sees, not as a piece of stone sees. We forget that the only way to understand another person’s problems is to look through their eyes. And to do that, we must continually re-evaluate our own perspectives, our own opinions, our own solutions. We must recognize the limitations of our own vision, even when we're sure we have the best solution. Continue reading "How can I help people if they're always changing?"

If language captured the full scope of Buddha nature, we'd just need to read a few books, and everyone would be enlightened. We'd take an evening class and be done with all those troublesome spiritual journeys. But words and lessons only have as much weight as our understanding supports. Meaning is decoded from experience, so there's often much that we miss. That's why Buddhist teachings are provisional. At different points in our lives, we're receptive to different kinds of messages. So a teaching that speaks deeply to one person may seem either obscure or obvious to another. Buddhist teachings are like medicine. Each of us has different ailments – anger, greed, ignorance, delusion, anxiety. Treating them takes the right lesson at the right time to alleviate the right malaise in the right way. Continue reading "What is Buddhism?"

Whether we have GEDs or PhDs, each of our minds brims with knowledge – reading books, sending e-mail, cooking food, driving cars. Carpentry. Nuclear physics. Sports. Television. We love learning new things. But to find meaning in our information, we first need to question it. And that begins by doubting. The source of doubt isn't fear. It's honesty. Through honest doubt, our questions lead to wisdom – the mindful use of knowledge. Knowledge itself can be copied, but its application each moment is unique, and that is how we learn and grow from it. Do we collect knowledge for its own sake or do we use it to help others? Scientists may one day make a chip to store more information in our brains, but would that really give us greater understanding or just more data to process? The knowledge we accumulate in life is a drop in the sea of humanity, which itself is a pool in the ocean of life. It's not the volume, but the use of knowledge that matters. Continue reading "What is knowledge?"

When meditating, we learn to eliminate the peripheral forces affecting our minds and bodies. We focus our concentration to help us perceive the world as it truly is. We then apply that perception onto our actions. This is how we become better people so we can best help others and ourselves. But improving our minds and achieving enlightenment are as different as hearing about something and doing it ourselves. Spiritual investigation helps us encounter ourselves. But the purpose isn't just to see the mind once or twice or even a hundred times. It's to immerse ourselves in it always. What stops us is habitual weight. Desire for things we once tasted. Even when we first experience a clear and calm state – a mind free of desire, infinite of potential – sooner or later, we drift back to our lazy habits and cloudy minds. Continual practice is the only way to unearth our minds from the chaos of modern life. Continue reading "What is the purpose of meditation?"

Aspiration. Accomplishment. Intention. We spend just about all our time thinking about the things we do in life. But every once in a while, we read about death or lose a loved one and become worried or depressed about what will happen to us when our lives run out. But soon enough, we're back to thinking about what's in front of us: earning money, making progress, and getting ahead. The comedian George Bernard Shaw's epitaph reads: "I knew if I stayed around long enough, something like this would happen." Death always seems sudden because we hope that by not thinking about it much, maybe it won't happen to us. Woody Allen once said, "I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens." We hope that somehow, some way, if we don't think about it or if we make enough progress elsewhere in our lives, death will happen in the background, and we won't have to experience it first-hand. Continue reading "What is the significance of life and death?"

Imagine an apple. It seems plain enough. We can hold it, taste it, smell it, or do anything we like with it. We can control it. We can understand it. But how can we understand a mind that can't be touched or tasted or often understood? A mind is awareness itself. It is perception, insight, and understanding. Our minds interpret what our senses report. This person is tall. That person is mean. This person has a beautiful smile. That person has a clever wit. But there is a gap between what our mind sees, what our senses notice, and what actually exists around us. Our internal minds and our external senses are always blinking, and so we're unable to make eye contact with reality itself. But when we hold our gaze, when we bridge the mind with reality itself, we perceive with awareness, and we comprehend with enlightenment. Continue reading "What is mind?"

Everyone pursues goodness in a different way. Even the jaded, the angry, and the tired would still choose happiness over sadness, goodness over evil. Socrates once asked, "Do you really imagine that a man knows evils to be evils and still desires them?" Socrates is saying that people, even when behaving cruelly, don't understand the range of what they do. Each of us defines happiness differently yet we all spend our lifetimes trying to find it. Some of us associate happiness with sensory pleasure. Some find it in human contact. But even with the noblest intentions, happiness evaporates when our minds respond to greed, anger, or delusion. When the sting of these mental poisons infects our perception, a mind-sized hell engulfs our consciousness. We all live on the same planet, but each of our worlds is unique. Some of us spend more time in Hell. Some in Heaven. The way we experience the same situations – the way our perception is poisoned or purified – is what delivers us each moment to Heaven or to Hell. Continue reading "What is the Buddhist conception of Heaven and Hell?"

All of life is interconnected. As humans, we depend on the organisms we eat. Those plants or animals, in turn, depend on each other to survive. This web of dependency fills the air, saturates the oceans, and covers the earth, connecting every organism on the planet. The damage we do to others, accidentally or purposefully, disrupts our collective ability to exist. What we say. What we buy. What we do. What we don't do. Our actions and inactions are inputs into the system of life. Sometimes the outputs are predictable. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes we help. Sometimes we harm. The effects of our actions circulate in the communities and the world around us. When we don't see the harm we're sometimes capable of – as an individual or as a community – we not only turn our backs on those we harm, but we also teach them how to turn their backs on us. Continue reading "What does it mean to cause harm?"

What's the allure of a nice car? A large house? A prestigious career? A solid gold yacht? Sometimes we can afford to feed our extravagant desires. Sometimes they put us in debt. But always, they plunge our minds deep into hunger. Eventually, we swim back to the shores of moderation, but we never stay dry for long. Desires relent, but they don’t disappear. Soon the tide calls again, and the urge delivers us back to the waters of material desire. And what comes of it? More craving. More coveting. And what are the triggers? Money. Land. Pride. We’re born naked, we die naked, yet we still claw and quarrel over our collections in the meanwhile. And for what? Continue reading "Why am I drawn to things that are harder to get?"

We sometimes feel alone in the world, each of us with different hopes and dreams. But all those unique feelings have a common source. We call that source life, and all life on this planet is interdependent. No one truly walks a solitary path. But in the past, people usually felt a need to exit society to find spiritual teachers and explore philosophical ideas. They became monks, hermits, or ascetics. With limited technology and information, there was no public access to matters beyond the mundane. People in search of books and teachers would spend weeks, months, or years looking for knowledge and guidance. Lifestyle choices were often stark, and there was no middle ground between monastic and secular life. But today, technology and information are in continual bloom. High-speed Internet, cheap books, and easy travel are daily realities. We can live the secular life, yet still visit temples, go on retreats, read books, meet monks, find meditation groups, and discuss philosophy. Investigating life’s inner design only requires that we give up our daily routines and start embracing the opportunities around us. Continue reading "If enlightenment is an individual achievement, where does that leave my partner, friends, and family?"

A thirteenth century Buddhist monk named Dogen was a Zen cook. He fed his spiritual hungers by feasting on the insight he saw in each moment. He continually nourished his soul by living each moment as best as he could. Like any good cook, he found sustenance in whatever ingredients were on hand. A Zen cook sees ingredients growing abundantly all around in thoughts, experiences and relationships. Cooking is the marriage of preparation and ingredient. And life is the marriage of understanding and happiness. Our preparation is often imperfect and our ingredients flawed, but everything we experience is edible to the mind. Whether good or bad, it’s all healthy as long as we learn from it. The master chef discards no scraps and spills no broth – each and every moment flavors our lives. Continue reading "What does it mean to live life to the fullest?"