Suffering is one of the undeniable facts of life that motivate our spiritual practice. It was coming face-to-face with aging, illness and death, that inspired the Buddha to leave his palace and his family behind, and set out on the path of awakening. In a sense, the story of Siddhartha Gautama is a metaphor for
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Did you know that the English word “spirit,” has it’s roots in the Latin word spiritus – which means “breath”? We find a similar connection between breath and Spirit in many other languages. The Hebrew word ruach means “spirit, wind, breath, and/or mind.” The Greek pneuma, as well, means “air, breath, soul, vital force.” The
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One of the central aims of Buddhist meditation is to cultivate compassion, or loving-kindness – and metta meditation is designed to do just that. Metta is a word from ancient Pali (the language of the earliest Buddhist scriptures) which does not translate easily into English. It is a term which conveys warmth, friendliness, non-violence, benevolence,
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In a previous post, I talked about the many ways that the ego can sabotage our lives. Today I’d like to dig a little deeper, and get the heart of what the ego really is, and how exactly it keeps us from being happy and content. And, as always, some practical advice; some action steps
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Forgiveness is one of the most powerful tools we have for healing and personal transformation. Jesus, Buddha and Lao Tzu all taught that forgiveness is essential to knowing inner peace and spiritual wholeness. Now doctors and researchers realize that forgiveness is essential to our health – mental, emotional and physical. Anger and resentment suppress the
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Confidence is one of the biggest keys to happiness and success. Low self-esteem can hinder your performance at work, affect your relationships, and generally make life more difficult than it has to be. Whereas a healthy dose of confidence can help you power through obstacles and achieve goals, both personal and professional. If you are
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As I’ve said before, if you really want to change your life and pursue personal excellence, meditation is essential. But there are a lot of people (those diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, for example) who simply can’t sit still. For these folks, sitting quietly with their eyes closed for more than a few seconds is
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Life can be hectic. Most of us have our hands full just trying to keep it all together. We do what we have to just to get by, from day to day. We seldom stop to ask ourselves, “Why am I here? Where am I headed? What’s it all about?” But it’s exactly this kind
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A few weeks ago I decided to try something a bit different… I meditated on the roof of a 61 story building. Unlike most of my meditation sessions, this one was unique… not only did it give me a breath of fresh air, it also helped bring me closer to the source that brings us all
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We all want to be happy. It’s human nature. But there’s another part of human nature – the ego – that constantly sabotages our happiness at every turn. If we let it. In order to be happy, we have to learn how the ego operates. We need to identify those destructive thought patterns that keep
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