East West Wisdoms

There are days when it all changes. Suddenly a new view is born! So there I was, basking in the sun and lazily contemplating a bird in the tree a little way from me. As I was enjoying its song and antics as it searched for food, I suddenly realised that the bird’s perception of [...]

We may not be solid, separate entities but we sure are moving in an ocean of relationships! We are communities of interbeing, on every level of our experience, inner and outer, and the great delusion is the belief that we are isolated, alone and out-of-place in our world.
We are most subject to this delusion when [...]

Some years ago, an esteemed spiritual teacher advised a distressed student, struggling with lack of self esteem and confidence, to “go and find some ripe bananas” [people with the qualities she wanted to embody] to spend time with. She explained how green bananas ripen faster when put next to ripe bananas and that this is [...]

How do you find happiness in a smashed–or disease-filled– body, wracked with pain? How do you find joy when you’re reeling from the pain of losing a loved one?
Try using the power of ignoring! Allow the attention to slide away from the sensations and thoughts filled with pain and redirect the mind to an object [...]

In one’s search for the seeds of ill will to weed out, I have often been surprised to discover subtle elements of ill will lurking amongst seemingly innocent reactions to surprise prompts.
Only yesterday I discovered some disconcerting evidence of one of these underground streams of subtle ill will manifesting in disguised form in the reply [...]

This morning I have been struck by three bright experiences that I want to share with you. The first arrived when sitting in meditation, ‘trying’ to “become like a rainbow!” A rainbow-like experience arises briefly but is quickly followed by sensory observations and fleeting thoughts. I remember the instruction: “Just allow whatever is there to [...]

Noticing the strength of habitual self referencing, reflected in the show of excessive apologising during recent hosting of wealthy English family members visiting us for Christmas, I am prompted to make some resolutions for 2010. Clearly, I need further work on developing loving kindness, acceptance, compassion and equanimity – amongst many other qualities!
It was somewhat unnerving [...]

Most of us find periods of explicit uncertainty very difficult to handle with equanimity. Indeed, the urgent desire to ‘know’ the way forward — to escape that uncertainty — or change the scenario, can feel quite overwhelming. It is this desire for it to be different that causes the extreme suffering associated with the times [...]

I am moved to share with you my present experience of passing time, waiting the long seven hours at an airport before I can take the late night flight back to my home city, a further five and a half hours away. I am entirely responsible for this inconvenience as I have missed my planned [...]

It’s all very well to feel a compassionate response to hearing about a friend in trouble or pain, or to be strongly moved by a story on the news or in a documentary, but how can I put this compassion into action?
Tonglen is a long established Buddhist practice of taking into one’s heart the pain [...]