A brief excerpt from Wisdom in Buddhism scheduled for release early 2018 A look at how Buddhism can encourage the circumstances that help give rise to wisdom. "... After you’ve examined all of that and sorted through the likely possibilities and applied your super-set of mental faculties; intellect, deep thought, foresight, humility, humour, learnedness, philanthropy, historical perspective and humanitarian point of view, you can make a wise choice. Once you set aside your

An excerpt from the book Death and dying in Buddhism Death is the ultimate threat to ego. Upon death of the physical body, the ego also dies. The body likely doesn’t even know it’s alive, but the ego knows of its own existence and (to borrow a few words from Dylan Thomas) will not go gentle into that good night, but rage, rage against the dying of the light. The ego has built itself from constant activity and it’s ramparts reinforced with bustle. The ego likes to keep busy

An excerpt from the upcoming book, Monk on A River - A Monk finds his Redemption by Helping Others Find Theirs That very evening, when all others, save the palace guards are asleep, Benudhar quietly departs his private quarters, leaving his third wife, Gargi, sleeping alone in their bed. It’s a warm summer’s night and his restless mind is full of plans that might get the monastery facility built. The moon is full and casts long shadows across the courtyards. The sky is crys

An afternoon with Sharon Fitzhenry. My mind spends way too much time in the future. It plans, projects, predicts and then does it all again. It analyses things to death, well before they’ve ever happened. “What work needs doing, who will do it, what resources do they need? What happens if X?” I suspect it’s one of the things that make us different from the animal mind. Being able to reasonably forecast consequences of actions is a key human quality. Of course we need to

Why do we too often feel life is filled with little disappointments? Why aren't our expectations being met?

An excerpt from Consequences in Buddhism; Why Things Happen. There is rarely just one specific thing that causes someone to have something happen to them. We live in a world that is complex, integrated, interdependent and constantly in a state of flux. We miss most of that and generally focus on our own immediate needs and what’s happening in our immediate world. We too often forget that there are many things happening all around us that affect to us – often things we can’

An excerpt from Death and Dying in Buddhism. Somewhere inside our head the mind is hard at work telling the body to breath, pump blood, walk, run, find food, drink, talk to friends, go for a run, hold onto the pole in the moving subway, balance on a skateboard and tens of thousands of commands every day to keep the body alive and so keep the mind alive. This of course begs the question “What is the mind up to?” Why is the mind running the body ragged trying to keep itself al

An excerpt from Consequences in Buddhism There is rarely one specific thing that causes someone to have something happen to them. We live in a world that is complex, integrated, interdependent and constantly in a state of flux. We miss most of that and generally focus on our own immediate needs and what’s happening in our immediate world. We too often forget that there are many things happening all around us that can cause things to occur to us – often things we can’t see

We can all remember at least one occasion where we have been SO RIGHT, then proved SO WRONG. We held one idea or fact that we were resolutely certain about, then, upon cross examination we were proved absolutely, demonstrably, profoundly wrong. At best, it’s a little embarrassing. At worse it can be dangerous to ourself and others. Until we discover we’re wrong, we feel just the same as if we’d been right. The same. No different. The moon is made of cheese feels exactly th

Excerpt from Consequences in Buddhism; Why Things Happen to Us. When I’ve been camping or hiking and something’s gone bad, it was never just one thing that exploded. It’s always a series of things. For example, a number of years ago a friend and I were hiking on the Healy Pass trail, near Egypt Lake, Alberta. We hiked about 6 hours that day and it was unusually hot and humid for August. When we arrived at our campsite in the late afternoon, we were both sweating heavily a

Excerpt from My Buddhist Journal; A Year in the Life of a Buddhist ... and that begs the question, “Is there a higher form of happiness that is less transient?” It turns out there may be. And on to still another Buddhist list and a higher form of happiness 1 loving-kindness or benevolence 2 compassion 3 empathetic joy 4 equanimity Love and kindness. We want this intention to manifest itself in some physical form. It’s not merely saying I have the intention of kindness, bu

An excerpt from My Buddhist Journal; A Year in the Life of a Buddhist This morning, during meditation, I reflected on the process of ageing. I was asked yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, about my age. I wanted simply to respond “56,” but I paused for a second or two. I paused, not because I couldn’t remember, but because I instantly realized that, while I’m chronologically 56 years of age, I’m also 38, 18 and 40 and 50! At times, there’s even a mischievous 8 yea

An excerpt from My Buddhist Journal; A Year in the Life of a Buddhist The board game Mouse Trap was the real eye opener for me. I just had to have it and bugged my parents for months before Christmas. Finally, I got the game in a beautifully wrapped package on Christmas morning. I loved the game and played it with my two sisters and parents. I played it with my friends and a couple of school chums. I even played it by myself. Then it snowed in the middle of January and

An excerpt from My Buddhist Journal; A Year in the Life of a Buddhist The other day I stubbed my toe ... hard ... Oh so hard! I actually saw stars. All I could think was, "Why oh why did I bloody well do that!?" So of course this got me thinking about why things happen. There appears to rarely be one specific thing that causes someone to have something happen to them. It’s almost always a few things. So, here’s a list, off the top of my head, of some things that are th

An excerpt from My Buddhist Journal; A Year in the Life of a Buddhist I occasionally think about my death, and death in general, during meditation. Not in a bad way. Not in a morose way, but in a way that simply reinforces the under-standing of Impermanence. I’ll wish for the Dalai Lama a long life, so he can continue to teach and inspire others. I wish for the same for other teachers of the Dharma. Still, I know they will pass away, as all of us will pass away. We need

An excerpt from My Buddhist Journal; A Year in the Life of a Buddhist We like to think of ourselves as “independent,” but in reality, we are anything but independent. Getting out of bed in the morning, requires that we have a bed to get out of – and few of us have the skills or motivation to build our own beds. It requires a floor upon when to stand and the vast majority of us didn’t lay down our own hardwood floor. When we get dressed, few of us don the clothes we persona

An excerpt from My Buddhist Journal; A Year in the Life of a Buddhist The Story of Milarepa From My Buddhist Journal - The Month of April ---------- The story of the Life of Milarepa is a mainstay in Tibetan literature. I've read it a few times, finding new, inspirational nuances with every reading. True, the story comes to us through the oral traditions, so we can’t really know how much (if any) was historically accurate. Still, the story has much to teach a student of th

An excerpt from My Buddhist Journal; A Year in the Life of a Buddhist. For the complete story, try our FREE publication, Life of the Buddha . Introduction Like so many ancient tales that come to us largely through oral traditions, what we think we “know” is often only speculation and interpretation. Stories get embellished along the way – added to and altered in many ways, often taking on a life of their own. Whether or not the man who was to become the Buddha existed, as I