Approaching Life with Beginner’s Mind

By Leo Babauta 
A lot of our troubles could be solved by one simple practice.
A lot of joy could be found with the same practice.
And it is simple: practice seeing life with a beginner’s mind.

Traditional versus secular Buddhism

By Bhikkhu Bodhi 

As the winding river of Buddhist tradition flows beyond the boundaries of its Asian homelands and enters the modern West, it has arrived at a major watershed from which two distinct streams have emerged, which for convenience we may call ‘Classical Buddhism’ and ‘Secular Buddhism.’ The former continues the heritage of Asian Buddhism, with minor adaptations made to meet the challenges of modernity. The latter marks a rupture with Buddhist tradition, a re-visioning of the ancient teachings intended to fit the secular culture of the West.

The purpose of life is to be happy

By His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The basic source of all happiness is a sense of kindness and warm-heartedness towards others. We are all the same as human beings. We are born the same way, we die the same way, and we all want to lead happy lives.

Refuge: A Safe and Meaningful Direction in Life

Taking refuge is the foundation for all the Buddhist teachings and practices. It’s called “the gateway for entering the Buddhist path.” When we understand that taking refuge means working on ourselves, then we see that it is an active process of putting a safe and meaningful direction in our lives. We work on ourselves by following the methods Buddha taught for ridding ourselves of confusion, disturbing emotions and compulsive behavior and for developing all good qualities. This is what all the Buddhas have done and the highly realized masters are doing, and what we try to do by following in their footsteps.

The Buddha’s Noble First Teaching

Tulku Thondup on the four simple and practical statements that encompass the entire Buddhist path, the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths.

After his attainment of full enlightenment, the Buddha’s first teaching was on the Four Noble Truths. In it the Buddha explains the mental and physical evolution of the mundane world and the same cycle in reverse. He gave this teaching to his first five monk-disciples at the Deer Park, now known as Saranath, near Varanasi in India. The Buddha said, “Oh Bhikshus, there are four noble truths. They are the noble truths of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path to the cessation of suffering.”

Living the Compassionate Life

The Dalai Lama explains how the Buddhist teachings of mindfulness and compassion lead inevitably to feelings of self-confidence and kindness.

As human beings we all have the potential to be happy and compassionate people, and we also have the potential to be miserable and harmful to others. The potential for all these things is present within each of us.