Dosho Port has a post up called " Dharma as Moral Principle " that has a great quote from the book The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character by Dale Wright.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health): Weekly courses in meditation, yoga and communication can improve the quality of life for cancer patients years after their diagnosis, according to data presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in Washington, D.C. “It’s important for doctors to know that their patients may still [...] Related posts:

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2. Meditation reduces depression, fatigue, anxiety in MS patients A new Swiss study reports that a form of meditation...
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Welcome to "Five Things You Need to Know for the Weekend," a Dunwoody Patch column that sifts through the long list of events competing for your time to offer our pick of five things worth doing with your time off.

The world's largest Jade Buddha is on its first world tour and is currently being exhibited in Gretna.

Melissa Korn and Joe Light: This fall, students at Columbia Business School will be invited to learn the art of meditation. Emotions will run high in Stanford Graduate School of Business’ long-running “Touchy Feely” course. And professors at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business will try to teach students to rein [...] Related posts:

1. Meditation in schools Meditation could help put an end to bullying in schools....
2. Councilwoman wants wants prayer back in Philadelphia schools The U.S. Constitution may prohibit mandatory prayer in public schools,...
3. From time-out to quiet time: meditation comes to SF schools Innovative ideas are often born in California. This is the...

Spring 2011 Day-long Intensive SURFING LIFE’S WAVES Saturday, May 21 GREEN GULCH FARM ZEN CENTER This one-day sitting will involve sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks, Q & A and, by request, private interviews with Michael. Confirmation will be sent to you when your $80 payment is received. Click the link below and you will be taken to [...]

The brouhaha is over. Following threats and intimidation from the culture authorities, the controversial nun Thossaporn Tewapitak has agreed to tone down her bizarre teachings.

Life is a thing that mutates without warning, not always in enviable ways. All part of the improbable adventure of being alive, of being a brainy biped with giant dreams on a crazy blue planet. Diane Ackerman, One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, A Marriage, and the Language of Healing, 2011 Tweet

As we might expect, Japanese Rinzai Zen has a different take on “sitting Zen” (zazen) than Japanese Soto Zen. It has the ring of a metaphor—not a rigid practice that is totally dependent upon putting the physical body into a...

Rumi says, "When the water gets caught in habitual whirlpools, dig a way out through the bottom to the ocean." How many habitual behaviors and ...

It is fundamental to Zen that the person who is committed to its process give up the strong belief that Suchness or tathata (i.e., spiritual substance) is perceivable as something determinate for sensory consciousness. It is not. The direct penetration...

Yesterday, the leader of Tibetan Buddhism also appeared at University of Southern California and gave his opinion on Osama bin Laden's killing.

Awakening the Sacred Body: Tibetan Yogas of Breath and Movement , by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, is an accessible and engaging book and DVD package detailing several core breath and energy-based meditation practices from the Tibetan Bon tradition.

Roni Caryn Rabin: Studies have found that meditation helps prevent the recurrence of depression, perhaps by producing changes in parts of the brain associated with learning and anxiety. A new study suggests that meditation may modulate brain waves called alpha rhythms, which help regulate the transmission of sensory input from the surrounding environment. Harvard researchers [...] Related posts:

1. Meditation may help the brain ‘turn down the volume’ on distractions The positive effects of mindfulness meditation on pain and working...
2. Noise, traffic, animal sacrifice (yes, really). These are the objections put up to block Buddhist groups Here at Wildmind we’ve reported on several Buddhist organizations that...
3. Mindful meditation may strengthen certain brain regions New research suggests meditation may improve certain brain regions and...

Have you ever noticed that when you are with some people you feel energized and when you are with other people your energy is drained? Do you have a difficult time saying “no” when someone requests something from you, and then find yourself feeling exhausted and resentful? Do you put your own responsibilities on hold [...] Related posts:

1. Meditation on money, mindfulness and motorcycles As a proponent of living mindfully and with a desire...
2. A list of ways to practice mindfulness Each and every day we have many opportunities to practice...
3. Tips for busy people for a daily meditation practice Are you one of those people who would like to...

At home we have two cockatiels and already several times i have seen that they really are receptive to communication. In the morning for instance, when i come into the room, they put their heads as closely as possible to mine and in a very unreserved way, without any shame or reticence whatsoever, they just [...] No related posts.

What constitutes Buddha's liberation and enlightenment? Is this only for Buddha and his senior monks? What are the satipatthana meditations that focus on nibbana and cultivate it? What do Buddhist scriptures say? I write for those who might deepen their interest in Buddhism.

When to do what in relationship… Tweet

This post was originally offered in June of 2008 as part of the book, Awake in This Life. ___ So why is it that so many seemingly enlightened masters get into so much trouble? If someone Awakens, we might imagine that he or she is beyond all of the bad stuff. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. [...]

If Zen Buddhism were Coca-Cola, Western Zen would be like the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) type served in a plastic bottle. The real Zen, still found in some parts of China and Korea, would be like Mexican Coca-Cola made with...

The basis is that Buddha, when he went on his quest, did not encounter god. Therefore, he was not commissioned by god to preach the truth of good faith in god, which is what most religious have more or less been doing.

TRUCKEE, Calif. - The mandala of the Enlightened Feminine creates a sacred geography within the psyche leading toward the realization of the innate perfection of the world.

I am taking Hokai Sobol's online course, The Three Pathways of Awakening , which is offered through Buddhist Geeks.

Genevieve Fox: Mindfulness is hip. It’s as trendy as yoga or zone-eating. No surprises, then, that when I enter the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC), I see dawn-red soft furnishings, green plants, rubber mats and kneeling stools. Wellbeing gurus would feel right at home. So would chocolate lovers. Mark Williams, clinical psychologist and the Centre’s director, [...] Related posts:

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2. Mindfulness therapy is no fad, experts say (LA Times) There is solid evidence that mindfulness therapy, which combines elements...
3. Stressed out? Try mindfulness meditation (Toronto Globe & Mail) Zindel Segal was in a Toronto bookstore a few weeks...

Tibetan Buddhism has long been a popular spiritual practice in the San Francisco Bay area, but the region's 1,500 Tibetan-Americans are just now getting a community center to call their own.The Tibetan Association of Northern California has bought a 22,500-square-foot office building in Richmond not far from the El Cerrito border.

Paige Henry: Hundreds of public, charter and private schools in the United States have implemented a practice that might seem strange, foreign or even ridiculous to some adults: the Quiet Time Program. It isn’t a ploy to have kids lay their heads on desks while teachers gossip in the break room. It’s not an extra [...] Related posts:

1. From time-out to quiet time: meditation comes to SF schools Innovative ideas are often born in California. This is the...
2. Meditation in schools Meditation could help put an end to bullying in schools....
3. Meditation: a new teaching aid for young children Serene students at Mona Vale’s Sacred Heart Primary School have...

"Next up: Kim Jong Il," a commentator wrote on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter , on Monday afternoon, as news spread that the United States had killed Osama bin Laden.

Buddhism is one of the foremost religious-spiritual, social, and indeed, political philosophies of the world.

For a beginner or a seasoned veteran of the zazen pillow it is appropriate to ask what is the real purpose of Zen. If I flip through my copy of Shunyru Suzuki’s book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (1996) he tells...

The Dalai Lama has canceled a scheduled lecture at University of California-Los Angeles due to ill health.

I don't know what life is, but I do hope that quickly after death we will each find out.

An answer you can find in old movies [for example, "Heaven Can Wait" or "The Horn Blows at Midnight"] is that after life you are on a cloud, in a long line, waiting for Angel Gabriel to let you in His gate -- or not.

Another possiblity is that you are deleted. There is less than nothing after life; you are as much not around as the memory you don't have of yourself before you were born.

It can be that you pass through the Bardo, a spooky old place, dream-like and filled with potential terrors, on your way to a next birth, as a human or some other sentient being on this or some other planet or somewhere or somehow in some other universe that you could never imagine. And it can be, that your reborn self comes tagged with lessons that you need to learn from all your prior lives, bringing you pains and pleasures that you deserve.

Many of us Buddhists pull out text from some sutra and say that Buddha told us not to speculate on those things be cannot know. And what might happen to us after death is just the kind of time-wasting speculation he was talking about. But Buddha also told us to use our own judgment of what we should think or do, and I think that considering the possibilities of what death might mean is a good use of a modest chunk of our life's time.

My hope is that we find out that a life is just a crazy old roller coaster ride.

At the end of life, you find yourself in a roller coaster car, passing out of a dark tunnel. The track takes you up and down a few modest bumps, splashing through water, then your car is brought to a halt. You then remember before you were born when you embarked on the ride. And unless you had a remarkable life, in an instant you see how silly you were in life, misjudging what was important and what was unimportant.

Just as with rollercoasters in amusement parks throughout the world, there is no lesson to be learned from a ride, and you disembark at the same place where you got on. Life, it turns out, is just a stunning experience, playing with that magical substance Ignorance. We are all of us, really, this single great Cosmic Self, frozen with absolute knowledge of everything and thus incapable of laughter, love, terror or hope. It is only through Ignorance that Cosmic Self can have adventures and experience the myriad feelings that Ignorance make possible.

While life isn't a land of lessons, we do learn things about it: It turns out that chasing after money and status is not only life's biggest time waster, it is as destructive as living a life of crime. There is nothing that one can achieve by being well off financially and being respected by others. Indeed, by taking more than your share of earth's bounty and putting yourself above others, you add to the collective pool of misery. It is only from a deeply felt compassion for others, and having modest possessions, that a life is profoundly satisfying.

But life is not a lesson. And whether we live as a seriel killer or an ego-free saint, there are no rewards nor punishments to receive or endure after life's passing. There is only this: Certain knowledge about everything, and the opportunity to ride again.

Funny thing -- or, I should say, seriously, that it is not so funny a thing -- the Roller Coaster Theory does not pick up much religious support. I think the reason for this is that religions thrive when obedience to the religion is rewarded with prizes and benefits after death. The Twin Towers suicide terrorists each had twenty submissive virgins waiting for them after their murderous crashes. Good Christians have an eternity in Heaven. Well behaved Hindus and Buddhists have karmic rewards, which might include a next life graced with prosperity, health, and attractive physical features. And, of course, for Buddhists there is Paranirvana, an absolute end to all suffering.

The Roller Coaster Theory comes then with marketting problems. The afterlife of the major religions promise a Parential [usually, Fatherly] Approval, and with it, happiness and security. So, there is a reason for us to be Good; our life has meaning. Be Good to make the Great Cosmic Dad proud.

In the Roller Coaster Theory, you are not still a child -- one of God's children -- you are a grown up. And while dangers and terrors and random acts of violence are for the most part outside what you can control or influence, there is no one more in charge than you are. Your life can go wonderfully or horribly, despite your will, effort and talents; there is no guardian angel to guide or protect you. And so it is hard to feel that there is ultimately any meaning to being alive.

Why be good if there is no eventual reward? At the first level of understanding, it is because you can only really be good if there is no reward. At the second level of understanding -- which trumps the first, obliterating it -- we should be good for its own sake: Good for Goodness' sake. That's all. There's nothing else.

But what is Good? And what is Goodness' sake? There is no one outside yourself to tell you. As our heart/mind matures, the ideal of good becomes less treacly and rule-bound. We do the right thing outside the call of reasons for what feels like [and is] a growing abundance of wisdom and compassion.

What is actually transmitted in modern Western Soto Zen, which almost exclusively rests upon the teachings of Dogen Zenji, is not difficult to pin down. But first of all, it is not the classical Mind to Mind transmission because this...

American composer Peter Lieberson, who wrote his most inspired songs for his great love, the late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, has died at age 64.

News and reviews from across the worldwide Triratna Buddhist Community (formerly known as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) and Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana (TBMSG) in India)

Local American-born Buddhists have been meditating and participating in dharma talks over the past couple of years at one of the city's downtown churches and at the house of their spiritual advisers.

'Ethnic federalism saw disastrous consequences' REPUBLICA David Gellner is professor of anthropology at Oxford University .

Daniel Goleman’s new book, The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights, is a fascinating round-up of the latest cutting-edge research into how emotions are processed in the brain, and how we can better regulate our emotional responses in order to be happier, less stressed, and more creative. This week Bodhipaksa had an opportunity to interview [...] Related posts:

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As spiritual practitioners we can often misplace our awareness, focussing too heavily on one or another aspect of being. We may overcompensate both intention and ...

Ani, The Times Of India: A new study has suggested that meditation and yoga can be ‘helpful’ in improving asthma in urban adolescents. A new study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) shows that urban adolescents with asthma may experience worse outcomes when not using spiritual coping and often use complementary and alternative [...] Related posts:

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The real practice of Zen is all about trying to remember the Buddha Mind (or Buddha-nature) that we've forgotten and by remembering it awaken (sambodhi). In this respect, remembering our Buddha Mind is more like a search. In addition, this...

South Korea News.Net Tuesday 19th April, 2011 Peace and reconciliation: The ruling Grand National Party's floor leader Kim Moo-sung kneels before a statue of Buddha at Jogye Temple, the chief temple of the largest Korean Buddhism sect in Seoul, Tuesday.

Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism by Pilar Jennings is a meticulously researched and in-depth examination of the similarities, differences, and processes of psychoanalysis and Buddhism, with an emphasis on the role of relationship - particularly the relationship between analyst and analysand, teacher and student ...

Rid yourself of distracting thoughts by concentrating on the five senses and you will feel happiness return.

What is mind?

BUDDHUNI MADHYAMA SAMBHASHANALU: Majjima Nikaya, Translated by Annapareddi Buddhaghoshudu; Pub.

Although other parts of the world and to other regions in India, it is Western India that we see such a profusion of what are known as cave temples.

Come join us. ____ Spring 2011 Day-long Intensive Surfing Life’s Waves Saturday, May 21 GREEN GULCH FARM ZEN CENTER This one-day sitting will involve sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks, Q & A and, by request, private interviews with Michael. Confirmation will be sent to you when your $80 payment is received. Click the link below and you will [...]

Many of us are familiar with the story of Siddhartha Gautama, who obtained enlightenment after 49 days of intense meditation under the Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya and who we now refer to as the Buddha.