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How to Find Your True Self, Your Heart

11/30/2018

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Someone said to me recently that they don't know what their heart is, and so they can't go to it or sit with it.  I understand perfectly.

I have always believed since I was exposed to the teachings of the Buddha that we are all born with the true Buddha nature inside us, that that is our true essence, our heart, our true self.  But  although I had absolutely faith in that, I wasn’t able to find a way in my meditation or otherwise to connect with that true self, with my heart.


And so for years, I really didn’t make much progress on the path.  I knew that the feelings and perceptions of my ego-mind were not my true self, they were just a product of the mind and caused me suffering, but I had nothing else to turn to.  My true Buddha self was not palpable.

Then one morning when I was meditating, the image of me as a smiling toddler from a photo my mother had recently sent came to me.  And I knew when I saw that beaming, innocent face, smiling for absolutely no reason other than just being, that that child was my true Buddha self, the manifestation of my unwounded heart.  And I cried.

That connection was a turning point for me.  The concept of my true Buddha self, of my heart, was palpable. Looking into those eyes, I saw light, love, faith and trust, and joy.

But although I had this experience, it would be many years before I was able to make use of this discovery in my practice.  Why?  I really can’t say.  I guess I just wasn’t far enough along in my practice to apply the lessons of my heart.

Then one day, when I was walking and saw things that disturbed me, I opened up my heart to embrace all aspects of my experience (“the heart’s embrace” practice), and all of a sudden, I felt I was that smiling toddler, and I smiled at the world around me and said, “Hello.”  He just came to me.  After that point, as I’ve written, I’ve often either conjured up my smiling toddler when I needed to pull myself back from the reaction of my ego-mind, or he began coming to my aid when I needed him, holding my hand.

And so I strongly recommend that you find a photo of yourself as a smiling toddler.  Or if you don’t have one, try and remember such a photo or what you were like as a toddler, before your life experiences separated you from your light.

If you just cannot picture yourself as a smiling toddler, then while you’re meditating try doing Thich Nhat Hanh’s mouth yoga exercise.   Gently relax your facial muscles and smile.  Although done purposefully, if done properly this is a real smile, not forced.  It come from within.   You will feel yourself lighten; emotions will dissipate.

While you’re in that space, visualize yourself seated on a meditation cushion dressed in a white robe.  Feel the peace that is within you; your mind rests totally undisturbed.  Visualize a white or golden aura emanating from you, the manifestation of the positive energy that is within your heart … the light, love, faith, trust, compassion, humility, gratefulness, joy, contentment, strength, courage, and wisdom.  Just sit with that for at least 10 minutes, observing and absorbing.

Whether by visualizing your smiling toddler or your aura, you have made contact with your true self.  How different it is from the dark world of your ego-mind with its fears, anxieties, negative emotions, and doubts.  Let your true self literally lead you away from the dark world of your ego-mind back to the world of light that is your birthright.   Visualize your true self extending a hand to you, take it, and let your true self lead you to the “other shore” where the physical you and your true self are one.
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My Road to Peace

11/26/2018

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On this Thanksgiving, I was most grateful for the spiritual path I am on because it is only that path that allows me to experience peace and happiness.  I could have no end of wonderful things in my life, and that thankfully has indeed been my experience in life, but if I were still in the grip of my mind I would not be at peace and not happy.  Instead I would be, as I was for most of my life, full of fear, worrying about the eternal “what ifs,” insecure.  Forget about the facade I presented; inside things weren’t pretty.

So on this Thanksgiving holiday, I want to share with you what has brought about this transformation.  I and others have written many books on this subject and I certainly have written many posts, but I thought it would be helpful to concisely state my experience.

I was first introduced to Buddhism by a friend 25 years ago.  I recognized immediately that there was something very different here and as I learned the teachings of the Buddha I had total faith.  They made sense; they explained why the world and my life were the way they are.  But it has taken decades of disciplined, daily meditation and practice, together with the teachings I received from monks and books and the daily spiritual conversations I have with my partner, to be able to know these spiritual truths from within and so bring me to the spiritual place that I am now.

And what is that place?  Briefly stated there are several components.  First, I know that what is most important to me is peace and happiness.  Nothing else my mind or culture urges on me has any value without peace and happiness.

Second, I know that all my mental suffering is a function of my mind … its emotions, perceptions, cravings, attachments, doubts, etc.  Not the actual things that I experience.  Of course I experience pain, physical or mental, but it is what my mind does with that pain that causes me suffering rather than being able to experience it with dispassion.  The Buddha said, “If it causes you suffering, it is not you, it is not yourself, for yourself would not cause you suffering," and so I have said to all these feelings and perceptions, “Not me!”  I have disassociated myself from my mind (the ego judgmental part).  It is not my true self.

Third, what then is my true self? It is my heart, my true Buddha nature.  The Buddha taught that we are all born essentially perfect, with the Buddha nature inside us.  Actually the mystical traditions of all 3 Abrahamic faiths … Kabbalah, Sufism, and Gnosticism … all teach that we were born with the divine essence in us, that is our true nature; but that our mind has separated us from that essence and it is our responsibility to rediscover it.  That is our task, to reconnect with the light, love, faith, trust, compassion, humility, gratefulness, joy, contentment, strength, courage, and wisdom that is our heart.

How did I find my heart?  For years I struggled with this but could not connect.  Then one day while meditating, a photo of me as a smiling toddler came to me and I knew right then that that child was my true Buddha self.  That opened the door to understanding that these qualities really are my essence, not the darkness, fear and anxiety that was bred in my ego-mind from its reactions to my life experiences.   Outwardly, people saw light in me, but the darkness in me controlled much of my life; I was in turmoil.

How does this all apply to my life in a practical way?  I know that regardless what life throws my way I will be ok, safe, (mentally) because I have returned home to my heart, my true Buddha self, and am at peace and happy.   I know that my life is the way it is right now because it’s just the way it is (free of any judgment, so it’s not resignation) and I am free of desire that my life be in any way different than it is at this moment.  And so I am happy and content and at peace in the present, free of all frustration; my mind rests undisturbed.  I know that all things are impermanent and so I release all attachments, even to life itself, and take joy in each passing moment, free of all frustration.

That in a nutshell is where my life is today.  I am truly free of all agitation; virtually nothing presses my buttons; I view all things with dispassion (I’m very aware of all the dysfunction in the world out there but react to it free of emotion).  I am at peace and happy.  I have even begun to experience true joy, taking simple pleasure in each passing moment.

​I
 wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and much love in your life, especially for yourself!
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Why Is It So Hard to Be Free of Your Ego?

11/20/2018

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In my post, “Ego - Changing Your Relationship With It,” I described the steps one needs to take to free yourself from control of your ego-mind.  Yet there is no question that even if you follow these steps, it is a real challenge to consistently be free of the control of your ego-mind.

Why?  Why is the power of the ego-mind so great?  The simple answer is that we’ve identified ourselves with our ego-mind for our whole life.  We have thought of it not just as our identity but as our protector.  To change that paradigm is thus no small matter.

It’s important to realize what you’re up against.  It’s not just your identity; we have been programmed by our ego-mind.  It’s responses to our various life experiences have caused synapses, connections, to be formed in the brain that determine how we react to various stimuli.

We are taught and think that we have free will, but in fact we do not.  Or at least the free will we have is available only within a very small range of options.  What we are trying to do in walking the path is to create new synapses that will in time become our default response.

So if one is going to have a chance of freeing yourself from the control of your ego-mind, the first step is that you must have the intent to do so.  There is no progress without the requisite intent.  But a point of frustration for many practitioners is that even though they say they have that intent, it doesn’t work.

Part of the reason why is that often they really don’t have that intent … not fully.  They may want to free themselves from the control of their ego-mind in certain areas, but they have not completely renounced their ego-mind, not on core issues; they have not disassociated themselves from it.  And it takes that complete break to have the necessary intent to free oneself from control of the ego-mind.

For most people, this is a scary thought.  And that’s precisely the point.  It is a thought.  Obviously this is not something one can “think”oneself through, because thought is a function of the mind and the mind will not help you here.

The only way you can reach the necessary intent is through meditation.  By just observing yourself, your thought process, going deep within to your heart (see my post, "Your Unwounded Heart”), remembering the Buddha’s teaching that “if it causes you suffering, it isn’t you,” going through the “Not me!” exercise  (see my post, “Not Me - Peeling Off the Layers of Our Ego-Mind”), aware of the distinction between pain and suffering (see my post of that title), and finding clarity regarding your true self v your ego-mind.

​
Once you realize from within that your ego-mind is not your true self, that your heart is, and that the ego-mind causes you nothing but suffering, you should be ready to disassociate yourself from it.  Even then, your ego-mind will not disappear or slink away defeated.  It will still pop up and when it does it is your responsibility to say to it, “no,” and return to the positive energy of your heart and the neutrality of your senses.
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Reincarnation - An Unorthodox Take

11/8/2018

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In traditional Buddhist teaching, reincarnation is something that the soul/spirit/consciousness must go through till we are enlightened, with the form/realm of reincarnation being determined by the karma we have generated during our life.  If your karma is really bad, you are reincarnated in the realm of ghosts,  If it is somewhat bad, you are reincarnated as an animal.  If it's good, you are reincarnated as a human.

While some schools of Buddhism take this literally, others treat it more as a parable, thus this does not mean that you dwell literally in the realm of ghosts or the body of an animal, rather that your psychological state is being in hell or behaving as a beast, rather than a human being … your karma follows your soul.  You are reborn over and over again in an endless cycle of samsara until you finally get it right and find enlightenment,  This is an oversimplification, but the general point is made.  (Note: There has always been much debate in Buddhist teaching about what exactly floats free of the body, but for purposes of this post I’m referring to it as the soul.)

I have never believed in reincarnation.  It just seemed too fantastical and too much like a Buddhist version of the Christian admonition of hell and limbo.

Yet I always have believed it when Tibetan Buddhists would find the new reincarnated lama by, among other things, placing before the child items that belonged to the previous lama together with other items, and the child would pick out the right items.  I also have always believed when someone is told that they are an “old soul” that that is true; that their soul has been around for a long time.  And when my partner Marty died, I remember thinking that at the moment he died, a new baby was born somewhere with  Marty’s spirit inside him.

I focused on this issue recently during a meditation because of a reading we did the previous evening about our spirit/consciousness lasting an eternity.  When I did, I arrived at a modified theory of reincarnation.

It is Buddhist teaching that we are all born essentially perfect with the true Buddha nature inside us.  Until we are impacted by our experiences of the world around us and our ego forms around age 3, we are full of light and love.

That teaching is inconsistent with the idea that our karma travels with the soul/spirit/consciousness from one life to another.  A self* burdened with karma at birth would not be your true Buddha nature.  Instead, that teaching would be consistent with karma remaining with your body when you die.  And that makes sense, because karma is a function of the ego-mind, not your true self or soul.  It is a manifestation of your earthly existence and so it should be shed together with the body when you die and your soul passes into another person who is born.

Karma in this view of reincarnation does not determine how you are reincarnated, how the soul will suffer in the next manifestation.  Rather karma just determines whether you are reincarnated or not.  If you have bad karma and are totally unliberated, your soul will continue to be reincarnated until you progress on the path.  If you have freed yourself from the lower fetters then your rebirths will be limited to those necessary to achieve enlightenment.  If you are an arahant, an enlightened one, there is no rebirth because you have freed yourself from all the fetters and rebirth is not necessary.

In this view of reincarnation, rebirth provides an opportunity for the soul to free itself if we haven’t in our current life.  It is a fresh start.  The state of your karma just determines whether and how often it is reincarnated.  Even if one has very bad karma, it is possible to become enlightened in the next life.  Indeed, there are many stories of people who had terrible karma but who saw the light after being exposed to an enlightened one and were almost instantly transported to the stage of arahant.  So even in one life you can go from having the worst karma to becoming enlightened.

This modified view of reincarnation also removes the “do this or else you will suffer for eternity” teaching that is so common to the world’s religions.  That teaching shows no faith whatsoever in human beings; Buddhism on the other hand shows great faith in human beings and in their potential to free themselves from the control of their ego-mind, their life-experiences.

So in my modified theory of reincarnation, when a person dies, their soul migrates to a newly born person, free of karma.  But what about population increase, all the people who are born who can’t be inhabited by an old soul?  Each day there are 19 births per 1,000 population, but only 8 deaths.  Ah, they are also born essentially perfect with the true Buddha nature inside them, just a newly minted one, not an old soul.  That’s why most people are not old souls.

Because this vision of reincarnation will be considered heretical by many, I did what I have often done which is to go back to The Life of the Buddha by Bhikkhu Nanamoli, the authoritative text of the Buddha’s life as related in the Pali canon, or tipitaka.

In this text, there is no mention of the cycle of reincarnation.  There is indeed only this one reference to “rebirth:”  “There are some monks and brahmans who assert and believe that purification comes through some particular round of rebirths.”  The implication is that the Buddha did not believe that version of reincarnation.

Instead the Buddhist teaching of reincarnation or rebirth developed over the course of several hundred years after the Buddha lived.  And there are variations in this teaching among the different lineages of Buddhism.

So while my theory of reincarnation is not in keeping with Buddhist tradition, it is in keeping with the teaching of the Buddha.  And for the reasons I have stated here, is more consistent with that teaching.
_____________
* Please note a difference between my teaching and most Buddhist teaching.  The teaching of “no self” is taken as meaning there is no self.  Period.  But as I explain in my post, “The Misleading Teaching of No Self,” this is a misstatement of the Buddha’s teaching of “not self.“  What the Buddha said was that various things … mental formations, clinging aggregates, feelings and perceptions … are not self; they are instead just a product of the ego-mind, they are of dependent origin.  What we think of as our “self” in fact is not and has no permanence.  He never said there is no such thing as a true self, such as your true Buddha nature.  Indeed, he absolutely avoided saying that.  See also my book, The Self in No Self.  I have since found that various schools of thought in both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism make the same point.
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    1. The Goal Of Buddhism
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    A Buddhist Trinity - Amended
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    Allow Nothing To Disturb Your Peace And Happiness
    An Open Letter To President-elect Trump And All Americans
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    Approaching The Other Shore
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    As A Buddhist How Do You Plan - Revisited Again - Relying On Your Buddha Nature
    As A Buddhist How Do You Think About The Future?
    As A Buddhist … Revisited Again - Do We Need To Know Where We’re Headed?
    As A Buddhist ... Revisited - Planning Without Thinking
    As A Buddhist … Revisited Yet Again - How Do You Implement Moving Forward Without Having A Destination Point?
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    Being Present Is The Key To Peace And Contentment
    Being Present - No What If’s Or Imagining The Future
    Being Present - Part 2
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    Belief In You Buddha Nature - The Beginning And The End
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    Enter Your Buddha Mind
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    Freeing Yourself From Suffering - The Prerequisite Step
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    Happiness - What You Need To Be Happy
    Happy New Year 2017?
    Have Directions Not Goals
    Have Faith In The Process
    Have You Heard Of Narcs - The Final Answer To Why I Was Frowning
    Healing Your Inner Child - Healing Your Wounded Heart
    Healing Your Inner Child - Update
    Hell Is Just Resistance To Life
    How I Failed Myself
    How The Ego-Mind Tries To Destroy Faith
    How To Desire Yet Not Crave?
    How To Find Faith?
    How To Find Your True Self Your Heart
    How To Free Yourself From The Control Of Your Ego-Mind
    How To Live In Our World
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    How To Spiritually Respond To The Election?
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    Humbling Myself
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    Humility: The Truth About "My" Good Accomplishments
    I Am Being Reborn
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    If This Is Practical Buddhism Why The Pastoral Setting
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    Imagining In Meditation
    I’m Grateful To Be A Jubu
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    Instead Of Forgiveness Show Compassion
    It Doesn’t Have To Be
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    It's A Sin -The Harm We Inflict On Ourselves
    It’s Just The Way It Is
    It’s Just The Way It Is And It’s All OK
    It’s No Crime To Think About Oneself!
    Joy - A Hopefully Final Take
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    Mirror Mirror On The Wall - A Revelation
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    No Expectations No Hope?
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    No Self - Not!
    No Spiritual Force Can Protect You From Yourself Your Mind
    Not Engaging Your Thoughts
    Nothing To Prove
    Not Me - Peeling Off The Layers Of Our Ego-Mind
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    Offer Joy Experience Joy
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    Oneness Does Not Mean Sameness
    Opening The Door To Being Present
    Our Over-sexed Culture And Lives
    Pain - A Cry For Help
    Paradise Lost
    Peace And Happiness Is Your Birthright
    Personal Boundaries As Part Of A Buddhist Life
    Preparing A Child For Life
    Pride Is A Function Of The Devil
    Problem - NOT!
    Proof Of The Nature Of Mind - Fear Ego And Buddha Mind
    Prosperity And Abundance
    Protecting Yourself From The Elements
    Psychiatry Needs To Incorporate Buddhist Teaching
    Putting Spirituality Into Practice 24/7
    Que Sera Sera - Whatever Will Be Will Be
    Real Clarity V The Delusion Of Clarity
    Reality Is Not What We Experience
    Receiving The Love Of Your Buddha Nature
    Reciting Affirmations
    Reclaiming The Narrative Of My Life - II
    Reclaiming The “Story” Of Your Life
    Reflecting On 75 Years
    Reincarnation - An Unorthodox Take
    Rejoice And Be Happy
    Rejoice And Be Happy - II
    Releasing All Desire
    Releasing All Desire - II
    Releasing Negative Energy
    Renouncing What You Have Always Depended On
    Replacing Weakness With Strength
    Reprogram Your Mind To End Your Suffering
    Returning Home - Returning To Your True Buddha Nature
    Right Attitude
    Ritual Burning Of The Past
    Safety Defined
    Saying Grace
    Saying “No” To Negative Thought
    Seeing The Light
    Seeing Through The Eyes Of Your True Buddha Self
    Seek And You Shall Find
    Seeking Guidance From Buddha Mind Not Ego Mind
    See Things Through Your Heart Not Your Mind
    See Yourslef And The World Through Different Eyes
    Self Re-examined
    Self-Responsibility During The Pandemic
    Sex - Misused And Abused - A Different Perspective
    Shall We Dance? - An Invitation To The Dance Of Death
    Shame
    Soul’s Yearning Distorted By The Ego-Mind
    Soul -True Self - And Ego-Mind
    Speaking The Truth
    Speaking To Your Buddha Nature/Divinity/Heart
    Speak The Truth But Beware
    Starving The Ego
    Step #10: Continued To Be Mindful Of The Arising Of Cravings And Desires And When They Arose Did Not Attach To Them And Allowed Them To Subside.
    Step #11: Sought Through Meditation To Constantly Improve Our Conscious Contact With Our True Buddha Nature
    Step #1: Admitted Our Cravings Cause Us Suffering And That We Are Powerless Over Them
    Step #2: Came To Believe That Our True Buddha Nature Could Restore Us To Peace And Created A Platform Of Serenity
    Step #3: Committed Ourselves To The Path By Practicing The Five Precepts And The Six Paramitas
    Step #4 Came To Believe That All Our Perceptions Are Learned - That They Are Just A Product Of Our Ego-mind - And That Our Ego-mind Is Not Our True Self - Instead We Knew That Our True Self Is Our Heart.
    Step #5: Were Ready And Willing And Made A Decision To Surrender Our Ego And Turn Our Will And Our Lives Over To The Care Of Our True Buddha Nature Opening Our Heart To Embrace All Aspects Of Our Being.
    Step #6: Came To Believe That We Have Everything We Need Within Ourselves To Be At Peace And Happy
    Step #7: Came To Be Free Of Our Cravings
    Step #8: Were Entirely Ready To Love Ourselves Unconditionally And Have Compassion For Ourselves And To Accept Ourselves And The World Around Us As Being The Way They Are Because It's Just The Way It Is.
    Step #9: Made A List Of Persons We Had Harmed And Made Amends To Them
    Stopping Self-Sabotage
    Strength Not Courage
    Suffering Is Universal - But Why?
    Survival - The Force That Controls Our Life
    Taking Pleasure In Each Passing Moment
    Taking Refuge In Yourself
    Taking Responsibility Is Not Blame
    Teaching Only Points The Way
    Test The Wisdom Of What You’re Doing Or Thinking Of Doing
    The 3-legged Stool Of Spirituality
    The Art Of Self-Nurturing
    The Challenge Of Staying Aware
    The Coexistence Of Ego And Buddha Nature
    The Devil Is Alive And Well
    The Distinction Between Pain And Suffering
    The Divine And Man
    The Ego As Saboteur
    The Emptiness Of Intrinsic Existence And Its Relevance To Global Warming
    The Felt Need For Acknowledgment
    The Five Precepts
    The Four Bodhisattva Vows
    The Fourfold Path To Freedom
    The Four Noble Truths
    The Freedom Of Focusing On Someone Or Something Outside Yourself
    The Heart/Mind Divide
    The Heart’s Embrace - More On Freeing Ourselves
    The Heart's Embrace - Updated
    The Hurt Of Rejection - Its Enduring Impact
    The Illusion Of Control
    The Imperative Of Self-Preservation
    The Lessons Of Siddhartha
    The Light Within You
    The Limits Of Rational Thought
    The Meaning And Power Of Selflessness
    The Middle Way - A Way Back From The Breach
    The Mind And The Wounded Inner Child
    The Mind And Your Inner Child - II
    The Mind Is Sneaky - Surrender It
    The Mind's Deep State
    The Mind - Suffering Connection
    The Miracle That Is You
    The Misleading Teaching Of No Self
    The Missing Noble Truth
    The Myanmar Situation
    The Mystery Of The Ego - An Answer
    The New Me - I Not I
    The Noble Eightfold Path
    The Original Trauma - Birth
    The Parable Of The Raft
    The Path As Tightrope
    The Path From Peace To Joy
    The Path Is Never-Ending
    The Power Of Affirmations - Use Carefully
    The Power Of Giving Voice To Thoughts
    The Present Beyond Us
    The Purpose Of Life
    The Purpose Of Meditation
    The Push/Pull Of Ego-Mind
    The Question Is Not Whether The Glass Is Half Empty Or Half Full
    There Are No Bad Persons
    There Is Nothing Wrong With You
    The Remnants Of The Ego
    The Serenity Prayer
    The Soul’s Yearning And How Best To Fulfill It
    The Stages Of Acceptance
    The Stages Of Man’s Spirit
    The Subconscious
    The Three Stages Of Embrace
    The Truth – Seeing It And Speaking It
    The Unaware Consumer
    The Wisdom Of Chickens
    The Wisdom Of Now
    This Is Not Me This Is Not My Self
    Thought Objects
    To Free Yourself From Cravings You Must Free Yourself Of Fear
    To Love Unconditionally = Loving-Kindness
    Tonglen - How To Approach Its Practice
    To Observe Free Of Mind - To Experience Joy
    To See Opportunity You Must Be Free Of Fear
    To Thine Own Self Be True
    Trauma
    Trauma Begets Trauma
    Trauma Denied No Longer
    Trauma - Healing It Is Critical
    Trauma - It’s Release
    Turning Your Will Over To Your True Buddha Nature
    Waking Up
    Walking Away From Modernity
    Walking On The Beach
    Walking The Path - It’s A Lot Of Work But It’s Well Worth It
    Wealth Poverty And Buddhism
    We Are All One
    We Are Not Meant To Suffer
    We Have Everything We Need To Be At Peace And Happy Inside Ourselves
    We Have Lost Our Sense Of Place
    We Make Our Own Mental Environment
    We Never Stop Healing
    What Activates The Ego-Mind?
    What Are We Celebrating On July 4th?
    What Blocks Me From Being Truly Present And Radiating My Inner Energy 24/7?
    What If The Present Is Bad?
    What Is Joy? What Is Happiness?
    What Is Life Without Emotion?
    What Is Most Important To You?
    What Is Your Task In Life?
    What Lies Behind Our Good Deeds?
    What Nourishes My Soul?
    What Price Peace And Happiness?
    What's In A Name?
    What's Real And What’s Not Real?
    What’s The Real Challenge - Life Or The Ego?
    What To Do When You Lose Faith?
    What Use Fame Power Fortune?
    What You Can’t Will And What You Can
    When A Heart’s Desire Is Commandeered By The Ego
    When Joy Is Not Joy
    When Love Is Not Love ...
    When Nothing Offends
    When Really Bad Things Happen
    When Smiling Toddlers Cry
    When The Mind Intervenes
    Who Am I?
    Who Are You?
    Who/What Is Your True Self?
    Why Diets Fail - A Buddhist Perspective
    Why Do We Crave?
    Why Is Being Grateful Such A Challenge?
    Why Is It So Hard To Be Free Of Your Ego?
    Why Is Mankind Trapped In A Box?
    Why Point The Compass Towards Tomorrow?
    Why We Take Offense
    Wisdom - What Is It?
    Wounded Our Ego-Mind Becomes The Devil
    Yes Virginia There Is A True Buddha Nature
    Yet Another Past Attachment
    You Are Not Alone
    You As Observer
    You Can Be In Control
    You Don't Need To Be Liked
    Your True Self And The Irrelevance Of The Min

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