As we start a new year, I have seen a lot of angst from various sources, emails, online forums, and so on. And I get it. The world is a mess. Of course. I just checked the news, and Rick DeSantis wants to blow up the Bahamas. Mercy. But I am wondering… has the world ever really been any different? I know that a lot of people think this time is the worst it has ever been. But we can never have a historical perspective on our own time. I often invite people who think that way to read Barbara Tuckman’s book A Distant Mirror. If you think things are a mess now, check out the Middle Ages. And even ..read more

I turn 70 next month and this seems like a particularly auspicious birthday. Of course, for me that is not saying much. Birthdays have not had much meaning for me in the past. I remember one year I was at work preparing to go home when I suddenly realized that it was my birthday! So needless to say, birthdays have not been a big event for me. Bur turning 70 feels different, and I think that is because it feels like a real cause for celebration. I have had an extraordinary life, one that I could not even have imagined when I was a child. I grew up in a rather sheltered way, and yet I have gone ..read more

Thich Nhat Hahn—“Thây” to his students—died a few days ago on January 22. He was one of the great Buddhist monks and figures of the 20th century. And I was very blessed to have had him as one of my earliest teachers when I started practicing in the 1990’s. In any life, you have to feel blessed to have just one person in your life like a Thich Nhat Hahn. I have been extremely blessed to have had more than one of them. That is why it is impossible for me to live even one day without boundless gratitude. There is a famous passage in the Pāli Canon in which the Buddha’s attendant Ānanda says that ..read more

I listen to many Dharma talks. I am sure that over the years I have listened to thousands of them. And, of course, you hear the same topics covered repeatedly, and you also hear the same questions asked repeatedly. One question that I hear a lot is from people who suffer from a psychological problem. It might be depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, PTSD, and so on. And these people want to know if the Buddhist path can help them to overcome these problems. And over the years I have heard many (many, many, many…) responses to these questions, but I have never heard a response that I ..read more

There are times when I just love how the universe works. As I am fond of saying, those who do not believe in magic and miracles simply are not paying attention. Here is a story in three parts. Part one: Many years ago I became enamored of a Buddhist monk named Ajahn Amaro. As is typical of my Buddhist teachers, he is endearing, grounded, brilliant, and has a lovely sense of humor. When I first became familiar with him he was the co-abbot of the Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California. This is about 30 miles south of San Francisco. I have listened to dozens and perhaps hundreds of hi ..read more

A man falls into a manhole. Whenever he sees someone walk by, he calls for help. Finally someone stops, looks down into the hole, and jumps in. “What did you do that for?” the man asks. “Now we are both stuck down here!” “Yes,” said the other man, “But I have been down here, and I know the way out.” – [from “The West Wing”] The Buddha’s teachings on rebirth are fundamental to the path that he taught. They create a sense of urgency about the meaning of our lives and how we should be spending our time and energy. This is serious business. There is a term in Buddhism that speaks to this. That t ..read more

I have not done a post in quite a while. I put most of my energy into my Jātaka book project these days. I am currently working on the final edits for volume 4. When you do a project like this – at least if you have the kind of mind that I do – you are fully involved in whatever the current story is. But as soon as you move on, you tend to forget about what you last worked on. So when I do the final proof of a book, sometimes it is like I am reading it for the first time. I just finished proofreading Jātaka 180, which is a lovely story about generosity. And I had forgotten that at the time tha ..read more

“For this cause I am prepared to die. But there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.” – Mahatma Gandhi A friend of mine who teaches meditation had a student ask her this past week what the Buddha had to say about killing in self defense. It is great question. It is simple and direct, and those are always the best kinds of questions. And it raises all kinds of issues in the Buddha’s teaching. One way to look at what the Buddha taught is that he described a universe of causes and conditions. His teachings on ethics and morality lack the punitive, judgmental quality of theism. It is mor ..read more

Today is Wesak day, which is the most important day in the Buddhist calendar. It is the first full moon day in May. According to the Buddhist tradition, the Buddha was born on this day, he attained enlightenment on this day, and he passed away on this day. Somewhat in honor of Wesak 2022, I have rewritten a paper I wrote years ago called “What the Buddha Taught“. It is a tribute to the depth and breadth of the Buddha’s teaching that this topic is not easily described. Some years ago I wrote a completely different paper with this same name, but I was never happy with it. I think this one is som ..read more

I turn 70 next month and this seems like a particularly auspicious birthday. Of course, for me that is not saying much. Birthdays have not had much meaning for me in the past. I remember one year I was at work preparing to go home when I suddenly realized that it was my birthday! So needless to say, birthdays have not been a big event for me. Bur turning 70 feels different, and I think that is because it feels like a real cause for celebration. I have had an extraordinary life, one that I could not even have imagined when I was a child. I grew up in a rather sheltered way, and yet I have gone ..read more