Tag: letting go

Staying in the Body and Out of the Mind

by Dana Nourie, Published on August 5, 2012, with 51 Comments

We’ve all been there. An argument with a relative erupts, and on your drive home you relive the experience repeatedly, so when you arrive, you realize you weren’t aware of most of the drive. For the rest of the night, you replay that argument mentally, say the things you wish you’d thought of then, and [...]

Letting Go of the Raft

by Linda, Published on September 3, 2011, with 4 Comments

*~*~* “I shall show you how the Dhamma is similar to a raft, being for the purpose of crossing over, not for the purpose of grasping…” *~*~* [MN 22.13 All translations of the sutta in this post are by Bhikkhu Bodhi] *~*~* The Buddha’s simile of the raft gets a lot of use lately [...]

The Goal of Practice

by Mark Knickelbine, Published on August 12, 2011, with 39 Comments

This simple approach leads to some startling possibilities, the most significant of which is a radical change in the goal of dharma practice.

Embracing Joy and Sorrow Fearlessly by Letting Go

by Dana Nourie, Published on August 10, 2011, with 2 Comments

I recall when I first started studying Buddhism how surprised and unsettled I felt at all the talk of dispassion and letting go.

Anatomy of Seeing into Experience: Right View

by Dana Nourie, Published on July 9, 2011, with 1 Comment

This is Part 1 of a series of exploration and practice into the first factor of The Eightfold Path. This first factor really holds within it the entire path. It’s not something you master and move onto the second, but is a journey of exploration that carries over into all the other factors as well. [...]

Is Secular Buddhism Cherry Picking?

by Dana Nourie, Published on June 30, 2011, with 35 Comments

For me, yes! Just as I would pick cherries from a tree, taking the ripe ones and the almost ripe, and leaving unripe on the tree and the rotten ones on the ground (or throw them away), I have cherry picked from Buddhism. Over the last ten years or so, I have studied Zen Buddhism, [...]

How an Atheist Practices Secular Buddhism

by Dana Nourie, Published on June 30, 2011, with 0 Comments

What science has taught me about being skeptical of the outer world, Buddhism has taught me about being skeptical of the inner world. Both require critical thinking, and both require evidence. While science turns those methods outward, Buddhism turns those methods inwards. What differs are the tools. In science, to evaluate the world and universe [...]