As a young woman, I found the peacefulness of Buddhist teachings deeply attractive. But I felt myself stumble psychologically when they were called the “middle way.” I believed life was a bold and ...

In current American Buddhist life and culture, we are witnessing significant discomfort, if not outright condemnation, regarding the “right speech” of taking political stances. While the genocide in ...

As someone who’s tended to gravitate towards practices, teachings, and teachers that have a grounded, direct, and honest approach to life, I’m often inspired by recalling an exchange I once read ...

The Wheel of Life is an Indo-Tibetan teaching aid and meditation tool. It illustrates the workings of samsara—the painful cycle of birth, death, and rebirth—which we undergo due to ignorance, ...

Buddhism is often viewed in the West through a simplistic lens, usually defined by meditation, mindfulness, and a sense of calm detachment. The third season of writer-director Mike White’s The White ...

Chinese style painting on temple wall in Thailand. Photo by Saitt_Srihin / Adobe Stock. Mindfulness is the fulcrum of the seven factors of awakening, says Dawn Mauricio. It helps you balance the other ...

Melvin McLeod: When did you start practicing meditation? Jon Kabat-Zinn: My first experience of formal practice—or even learning about it—happened one day in 1965. I was a molecular biology student in ...

“American Tall Lotus” by Lisa Ernst. What is enlightenment? This is often the first question people ask when they begin to explore Buddhism, because enlightenment is the culmination of the entire ...

In the northeastern reaches of Bhutan, situated in the center of a cup-shaped formation of mountains surrounding a valley, located in Rawabi Village, Lhuentse District, sits a settlement called Druk ...

At the heart of Shakyamuni Buddha’s spiritual revolution was the doctrine of anātman, meaning “no-soul” or “selflessness.” This was not just a refinement of existing spiritual thought — it was a ...

At Plum Village, the practice center where I live, we learn to come in touch with the wonders of nature as a source of nourishment and healing. Cultivating awareness of the impact of our daily actions ...

In 1960, at the age of forty-seven, the great Dzogchen teacher Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche (1913–2015) stood before the Mahabodhi Stupa in Bodhgaya, India, palms joined, and vowed never to eat meat ...