Guidelines for developing a happier life
The sixth of Atisa’s nine contemplations is: Your Body Is Fragile and Vulnerable Most of us believe that we are our bodies. As long as our bodies are functional human units, we feel certain that we are alive and here. Continue reading
The fifth of the nine contemplations of Atisha is: Death Has Many Causes There’s a classic book by Sherwin B. Nuland (1930-2014) called How We Die, originally published in 1994, that describes in detail the ways that bodies stop functioning. Continue reading
The fourth of the nine contemplations of Atisha is: Your Life Span, Like That of All Living Beings, Is Not Fixed Somehow, when a person dies at age 90+, we are still shocked. When someone has a miscarriage or a Continue reading
The third of Atisha’s nine contemplations on death is: Death Will Come Whether You Are Prepared or Not How do we prepare for death? Mostly, we don’t. If we get a terminal diagnosis we might consider it, but often not Continue reading
The second of Atisha’s Nine Contemplations (on death) is: Your Life Span Is Decreasing Continuously We are profligate with our time, as if there will always be more. Psychologically, it is difficult to cope with the knowledge that every day Continue reading
As I read recently: “Talking about sex won’t make you pregnant, and talking about death won’t make you die. Despite the truth of that statement, many of us are reluctant to acknowledge that everyone and everything will die. We are Continue reading
The Buddha’s eightfold path is a complete set of instructions for learning to cling less and as a result, suffer less, which was the Buddha’s whole teaching mission. (Summary here: https://buddhasadvice.wordpress.com/the-eightfold-path/) But the path is more of a circle, a Continue reading
In the mental training section of the path (Right Effort, Mindfulness, and Concentration) Wise Mindfulness is the main practice for moving along the Buddha’s eightfold path. There are four traditional foundations or frameworks for contemplation that develop mindfulness for us Continue reading
We’ve been thinking about different parts of the Buddha’s eightfold path and have come to the “last” third. Traditionally it’s sīla-samādhi-paññā, i.e., ethical training, mental training, and living with wisdom. But it’s not a linear path; each element strengthens all Continue reading
We’ve stepped through the first two elements of the Buddha’s eightfold path, Right View and Right Intention, and we have recently reflected on most of the middle section of the path which deals with speech and actions (the 5 precepts). Continue reading
If we have right view, that is, if we understand that our actions have consequences, for better or for worse, then we will try to match our actions with that understanding. The connection is made by Right Intention, the second Continue reading