Web of Enlightenment

The Key to Spiritual Transformation.

2012-03-02T08:51:00.000-06:00

Meditation is ultimately a confrontation with boredom. We have to sit with our loneliness. We are forced to choose: Will I embrace the boredom and let go of my self or will I cling to entertainment, some thing to keep me company? Will I take each emerging thought hostage and transform it into some story that medicates my loneliness? Or, will I allow even the subtlest of thoughts—the basic

How to Practice Being a Sane Person Without a Spiritual Bone in Your Body.

2012-02-21T11:12:00.000-06:00

3 Non-Spiritual Remedies for the Common Funk. Everybody slips into a funk from time to time. I’m talking about an “ignore every call-I don’t wanna meditate, I’m watchin’ Law & Order and eatin’ ice cream” kinda funk. These bad moods are to be expected. They’re the mental equivalent of the common cold. Often times these funks are immune to the formalities of our spiritual practice. Not

Letting Go.

2012-02-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

"LET GO: Give people the complete freedom to make their choices. And know that all the love you want is within your own heart." *first published on threedeelife.com Sometimes life is so obvious in the lessons it wants me to learn, I get excited, like I am cracking a code. Today was one of those days. I had a situation that was troubling me. I wanted things to be different than they

Enpowerment and Community Building.

2012-02-15T19:07:00.001-06:00

Of late, I have been endlessly fascinated by community leaders. What does it take to build a sustainable community that gifts itself to those it serves? Please share your thoughts below. I recently came across the following video, which mesmerized me. Bunker Roy seems to have stumbled upon the single most important ingredient in a sustainable community: empowerment. I believe that everyone

The Death of Valentines Day.

2012-02-14T12:23:00.000-06:00

Photo courtesy of Mark J Sebastian. The search for certainty is a game... A dreadful and violent game with no end. It is the incessant pursuit of something that does not exist. Often times, the recognition and acceptance of its absence is called love. From a certain point of view, love is a frightening thing. It shakes the ground I stand on. Love is an atmosphere so spacious

Quote of the Day: Chogyam Trungpa on Fear & Embarrassment.

2012-02-13T13:01:00.000-06:00

We are embarrassed about our own existence... “We have a fear of facing ourselves. That is the obstacle. Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot of people. A lot of people turn to something that they hope will liberate them without their having to face themselves. That is impossible. We can’t do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see

Is Buddhism Better than other Religions?

2012-02-07T13:46:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Jeremy McCarthy wrote an article on elephant journal (click here to read) drawing comparison between Buddhism and the other great religions of the world. To be fair, he didn't say that Buddhism was better. Here is the just of what he had to say: 1) Buddhism is more about life and less about the afterlife: It is less about how we got here, and where we go when we die, and more

Meditation Tip: Let Your Cheese Slip off Your Cracker!

2012-02-06T13:49:00.002-06:00

Experience the haunting silence of your radiant mind! Do not try to stop your thinking—the only mechanism you have to accomplish such an end is thinking. Therefore, you will find your self thinking about not thinking—a frustrating and self-perpetuating cycle of thought. We have to allow our thinking to be free flowing, non-regulated. This is very difficult. It feels like you are

Embracing Personal Sadness as the Path to Awakening.

2012-01-30T10:37:00.000-06:00

Buddhism is not about wishful thinking or academic speculation. The Buddhist path is about learning to participate in the expansion of your true life. In short, it is about learning to love your Self. Buddhist spirituality is not a theoretical endeavor. It is a first-person exploration of what it means to truly be your Self. Buddhism is about awakening to the immediacy of our life. Ideas do

What's the Difference Between Spirituality & Self-Improvement? My Answer in One Sentence.

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

I do not care how Amazon.com or Barnes-&-Nobles discerns between spirituality and self-improvement. I am describing the actual movement—the real life attempt to fix yourself—not some section of a bookstore or system of classification authors are shoved into willy-nilly. Fixing yourself is violent because it requires, first, a rejection of yourself, then, a brutal attempt to "improve"

Is Spirituality Just Another Defense Mechanism?

2012-01-25T11:32:00.000-06:00

So often we approach religion and/or spirituality as if it were nothing more than an “evacuation plan.” We feel so overwhelmed with disappointment and frustration that we want something or someone to deliver us from our ordinary life. So, we set out in search of “something else.” This only adds to our frustration, because that “something else” never comes. There isn’t anything else. "

"We're All Perfect but Could Use a Little Improvement."

2012-01-17T12:30:00.000-06:00

A Good Heart is Indestructible. Recently I was speaking with a man, of about forty, who was suffering from alcoholism and drug addiction. He was telling me that his life had gotten so bad that before coming to treatment he and his girlfriend would lie in bed and fantasize about dying. They weren’t talking about suicide or how they could end each others lives. They simply wanted to

God & Meditation: The Rise, Fall, & Redemption of Western Spirituality in 371 Words.

2012-01-12T15:51:00.000-06:00

At one time, we were all connected, so to speak. There was an intuition of being. We were aware that we were awareness. “God” wasn’t over there; it was at the core of who we were. There was a rawness about us—we were open and willing to be embarrassed. Furthermore, this way of being was so natural, so instinctual, that we didn’t even think about it. But somehow we caught the sickness that

Quantum Activism: The “Yoga” of Religion & Science.

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-06:00

The “union” of religion and science will be a reconciliation of consciousness and matter. “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.” ~Werner Heisenberg, the father of Quantum Mechanics “If you hear the message of Quantum Physics, then all you have to do in order to see that there is evidence for

Buddhism is Non-Theistic. What Does Non-Theistic Mean?

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-06:00

It is the experience of egolessness… “Self-Existing energy takes place continuously. Although the source of such energy is difficult to track down, it is universal and all-pervasive. It happens by itself, naturally. It is based on enthusiasm as well as freedom: enthusiasm in the sense that we trust what we are doing, and freedom in the sense that we are completely certain that we are not

Working With Your Karma (In User-Friendly Terms).

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-06:00

“We need to appreciate our mistakes and the ways in which we seem to mess ourselves up. In the life of a practitioner, those seemingly false steps represent the ripening of karma and the exhaustion of evil deeds… Shantideva* says, you become like a stick of wood, a dry stick of wood, lying in a field, when the charge is up and you simply experience the charge. And that’s how you resolve

"The Power of Now..." Without All the New-Agey Fluff.

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

All we have is right now. We will never have anything more. That is the power of now. “When I rest as the pure and simple Witness, I notice that I am not caught in the world of time. The Witness exists only in the timeless present. Yet again, this is not a state that is difficult to achieve but impossible to avoid. The Witness sees only the timeless present because only the timeless present is

Flippin' Comic Flapjacks With the Buddha.

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000-06:00

“Something living, something real, is taking place in everything.” ~Chogyam Trungpa “Our ordinary approach to reality and truth is so poverty stricken that we don’t realize that the truth is not one truth, but all truth. It could be everywhere, like raindrops, as opposed to water coming out of a faucet that only one person can drink from at a time. Our limited approach is a problem…

What is Buddhism? My answer in 362 Words.

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-06:00

Recently, I received an email asking me to explain Buddhism. Here is my answer: First of all, Buddhism is the recognition of suffering. Second, Buddhism recognizes that suffering is not dumb, but intelligent. So, we look at our own suffering, so as to see the pattern or path that gives rise to our dissatisfaction. Then, we turn around and walk backwards down the path of suffering. Walking

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche: Finding Inner Freedom through Meditation {Video

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

The True Nature of Mind is Like Space...

In 2 Sentences the Dalai Lama Redefines Religion.

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

The Confession of Kalu Rinpoche: Revelations of Sexual Abuse in Tibetan Buddhism.

2011-12-05T13:54:00.001-06:00

A Review of The Sex Lives of Monks: Confessions of Kalu Rinpoche by Shyam Dodge "Kalu Rinpoche, a 21-year-old young man, is considered to be the divine reincarnation of Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche. The official website for the lineage declares Kalu to be the “The Supreme reincarnation of our spiritual master” and someone who’s mere gaze can inspire equanimity, even ecstasy. Troubling

Mindful Stocking Stuffers: My Favorite Buddhist Books.

2011-12-02T13:58:00.001-06:00

Click the link or the image to purchase the book from Amazon. My Favorite Daily Reading Book: Ocean of Dharma by Chogyam Trungpa ____ My Favorite Buddhist Beginners' Book: Faith, by Sharon Salzberg ____ Most Influential Non-Buddhist Book: No Man Is An Island, by Thomas Merton ____ My Favorite Practice Book: Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body by

Sogyal Rinpoche: How to Deal With Life "Dharmically."

2011-12-01T13:08:00.000-06:00

How You Deal with Life is what’s Important. “Sometimes it can be very frightening to look at how we live today. Everything is accelerating, and we are so fast. Too fast. We need to stop for a moment, to look into ourselves, and ask, “What am I doing? And why?’ And what we’ll find is that there seems to be a contradiction: extraordinarily brilliant minds coupled with such weakness. We are

Buddhism: Religion or Philosophy?

2011-11-29T03:00:00.000-06:00

“Truth is a Pathless Land.” ~Jiddu Krishnamurti ‎"Buddhism appears to be a religion, as a concession to human mentality. But Buddhism is not a religion. Buddhism is the dismantling of all religions. Buddhism is not a philosophy; it’s the dismantling of all philosophies. It’s not a psychology, it’s not a system of ethics, it’s not a way to relax. It’s the dismantling of all human agendas