The brahmavihāras, or “sublime attitudes,” are the Buddha’s primary heart teachings—the ones that connect most directly with our desire for true happiness. The term brahmavihāra literally means “dwelling place of brahmās.” Brahmās are gods who live in the higher heavens, dwelling in an attitude of unlimited goodwill, unlimited compassion, unlimited empathetic joy, and unlimited equanimity. These u…

The question of what has the power to obstruct the beauty of caring pertains not just to our relationships with people but also to the way we relate to things and to views and opinions. Perhaps for instance, we thought that we were being compassionate towards planet earth, taking good care of her, only to catch ourselves behaving aggressively towards those we see as exploiting her. Can we tolerate…

In summary, the core meaning is that when the awakened mind reviews the manifest world, it exhibits a deep appreciation of ‘uncivilized’ nature. On the face of it, this is simply because a remote environment offers fewer possibilities for worldly motivation, and also encourages deep contemplation on the facts of existence. In the presence of constant change and the imminence of death, the mind tun…

In order to support the journey from the early to the later stages of maraṇasati—both for the Earth and for the body—we need to move slowly and employ some grounding practices. Whenever we feel that this contemplation is becoming too intense, it’s important to take a step back and remind ourselves that this is a very long journey. To make this path sustainable, we must be gentle with ourselves. W…

The way of the Dhamma is one of observing nature and harmonising our lives with the natural forces. In European civilisation we never really looked at the world in that way. We have idealised it. If everything were an ideal, then it should be a certain way. And when we just attach to ideals, we end up doing what we have done to our earth at this time, polluting it, and being at the point of totall…

Distributing the daily work assignments seemed a bit complicated today. That’s the nature of organizing many people living together. When there is one person living in one place, it’s fairly simple. With two people it’s a little harder, and it gets exponentially more complicated as the number of people increases. For this reason, we need to learn the skills of living together, so that our own inte…

Is there a Buddhist approach to conflict resolution? Every society experiences conflicts of interest and view, both from within and from without. Buddhist teachings emphasize ways of preventing conflicts from arising in the first place and of preventing those that have already begun from escalating. They seek to achieve this by instructing the people involved how best to educate their conduct, emo…

It is not possible, Cunda, that someone stuck in the mud could pull out another who is stuck in the mud. But it is possible that someone not stuck in the mud could pull out another who is stuck in the mud. It is not possible that someone untamed, untrained, not completely calmed, could tame, train or completely calm another. But it is possible that someone tamed, trained, completely calmed could t…

The drawback with the Romantic and Transcendental movements is that, like the Western tradition in general, they referred to the Ideal, and neither nature nor humans are ideal. They interpreted a principle rather than establishing a way of life from living in the natural world. The principle of equality doesn’t fit with unbridled individuality; relational balance is required. And even wonderful ab…

An anthropologist once questioned a native Alaskan shaman about his tribe’s belief system. After putting up with the anthropologist’s questions for a while, the shaman finally told him: “Look. We don’t believe. We fear.” In a similar way, Buddhism starts, not with a belief, but with a fear of very present dangers. As the Buddha himself reported, his initial impetus for leaving home and seeking awa…