 The Truth about Suffering
I once thought Buddhism would save me from suffering. That was before I started to grow older and wiser. And it isn’t so much the wisdom that changed my mind about the end of suffering as it is the aging. – Wes Nisker, “The Question” Click here to learn how you can receive a 30 minute Mindfulness Break in your home. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for April 13, 2019
 Slow and Steady Wins the Race
To recognize our suffering and respond to it with compassion is a gradual process, and it must be done with sensitivity and care. – Beth Roth, “Family Dharma: Leaning into Suffering” |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for March 19, 2019
 Elements of Stability
The transformative power of Buddhist meditation occurs when the stability and vividness of shamatha is unified with the penetrating insights of vipashyana. Shamatha by itself results in a temporary alleviation of the fundamental causes of suffering, and vipashyana by itself provides only fleeting glimpses of reality. – B. Alan Wallace, “Within You Without You “ |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for March 15, 2019
 When you meditate on compassion you begin to identify more with the desire and capacity to alleviate suffering and less with the suffering itself, so that although you experience suffering, you recognize that it is something that happens, not who you are.
– Mary NurrieStearns |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for March 02, 2019
 Desire
Desire is what causes things to happen. For example, if there were no desire in anger, we would never curse someone or hit them. If there were no desire in love, we wouldn’t want to bring happiness to people or reduce their suffering. It is desire itself that brings the final action, not the emotion underlying it. – Jerome Freedman, Mindfulness Breaks: Your Path to Awakening NOTE: This month we celebrate my teachers, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and Father Eli, who taught me so much about meditation, “mind stories” and visualization. My book, Mindfulness Breaks, Your Path to Awakening, celebrates Thich Nhat Hanh and Father Eli. The book was released last month. Chick on the link below or in the bio for more information. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for February 16, 2019
 “If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of
paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. The observation that we “inter-are”, while true and poetic is not really the most important element of “Interbeing”. The important part is the realization that there is no independant self – that the perception of self, of “me”, of “mine” is an illusion. Awareness that “I” am made of “non-I” elements leads to the understanding of non-self and it is the realizaton of non-self that brings an end to suffering.” – Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding NOTE: This month we celebrate my teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh who is now residing in his original temple, Tu Hieu in Vietnam. According to Plum Village sources, he plans to spend the rest of his days there, walking and visiting the resting place of his teacher. My book, Mindfulness Breaks, Your Path to Awakening, celebrates Thich Nhat Hanh and one of my first teachers, Father Eli. The book is being released this month. Chick on the link below for more information. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for February 08, 2019
 The Consequence of Forgetfulness
If we live in forgetfulness rather than in mindfulness–in a dream–we are creating violence without being aware of it. The way we live our daily lives and the way we consume creates a lot of suffering, a lot of injustice. We think it does not harm us, or others, but it can be very violent. – Thich Nhat Hanh, “Waking Up the Nation “ NOTE: This month we celebrate my teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh who is now residing in his original temple, Tu Hieu in Vietnam. According to Plum Village sources, he plans to spend the rest of his days there, walking and visiting the resting place of his teacher. My book, Mindfulness Breaks, Your Path to Awakening, celebrates Thich Nhat Hanh and one of my first teachers, Father Eli. The book is being released this month. Chick on the link below for more information. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for February 01, 2019
 Mindful Breathing
Mindful breathing helps you see your anger, your frustration, your suffering. When you breathe mindfully, you practice looking deeply into yourself. You are made of feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Your true nature is what–if not these things? Because it is wrong perceptions that make you suffer, and if you don’t know the nature of your own perceptions, you are not likely to get free of your suffering. So your true nature is the nature of your feelings, your perceptions, your mental formations, and your consciousness. – Thich Nhat Hanh, “Interbeing with Thich Nhat Hanh” NOTE: This month we celebrate my teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh who is now residing in his original temple, Tu Hieu in Vietnam. According to Plum Village sources, he plans to spend the rest of his days there, walking and visiting the resting place of his teacher. My book, Mindfulness Breaks, Your Path to Awakening, celebrates Thich Nhat Hanh and one of my first teachers, Father Eli. The book is being released this month. Chick on the link below for more information. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for January 31, 2019
 “Through meditation practice we learn to enter into silence, and there the fruits of the practice reveal themselves: wisdom, which is seeing deeply into the true nature of life, and compassion, the trembling of the heart in response to suffering. Wisdom reveals that we are all part of a whole, and compassion tells us that we can never really stand apart. Through this prism we see life with openness, knowing our oneness. We find wisdom and compassion coming to life, transforming how we understand ourselves and how we understand our world.”
– Sharon Salzberg, A Heart as Wide as the World |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for January 09, 2019
 Embracing Groundlessness
It’s not impermanence per se, or even knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering, the Buddha taught. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our effort to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness. – Pema Chodron, “The Fundamental Ambiguity of Being Human” |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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