Happiness, The Great Illusion

Most of us have been raised on various stories that end in “And then they lived happily ever after.” Our media pushes the importance of happiness, as though any other state of mind is repulsive. We tend to gravitate towards people who seem happy, and let’s face it, we all enjoy the feeling of happiness.

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Early Buddhist Discourses (Book Review)

If you are curious to read where the Buddha’s teachings came from and want a small sampling of discourses, or suttas, that reveal the basic teachings, the book Early Buddhist Discourses edited and translated by John J. Holder may be just the book for you. This book is similar in organization and breadth as Glenn…

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Be a Buddha, Not a Buddhist: Introduction to Weekly Practice

Be a Buddha, not a Buddhist is an important concept to me because the real value, as I see it, in Buddhism is not the ism but the practice itself. I’ve realized recently that I’d like to take my understanding of Buddhism into deeper territory. One of the best ways to do this is to revisit everything I’ve learned in the past, to start my practice from scratch, or with the beginner’s mind, so to speak.

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Weekly Practice (Impermanence)

For this Weekly Practice we are going to explore impermanence. Don’t lament, “Oh, I know everything is impermanent!” No matter what ideas you currently have about impermanence, no matter how much you may have dug into this topic before, let’s look at it in detail this week. While most of us have a basic awareness…

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