Bodh Gaya
As soon as I decided to go to India, I added Bodhgaya to my list. I intended to go there years ago but it didn’t work out then, it probably wasn’t the right time. Now, I was finally on my way. Bodhaya is a pilgrimage…
Ladakh: A Fairy Land
If there is one word to describe Ladakh, it is “fairy-land” (or should I say Dakini land)? The flight from Delhi was one of the most spectacular as we flew over the whole range of Himalayas from south to north, with breathtaking views of the…
In a Zen Monastery
I arrived at the monastery after a 2.5 hours scenic drive through rural PA and NY, crossing rolling green hills, mountains, rivers and beautiful meadows. I called the monastery from Livingston Manor, a town 45 minutes away, as they asked me to, so that they…
Saicho and Kukai and Reiki
When I found about the letters exchanged between Saicho and Kukai, I was just blown away. Imagine two young monks, carefully chosen, to travel to China to study Buddhist teachings and to bring back the select texts to Japan. The year was 804! This is…
Can You Become a Buddha by Sitting and Doing Nothing?
I was quite surprised when I came home the other day. I saw how various plants had sprung out of pots full of barren, dry soil. We had planted flowers in those pots last year, but when winter came, the flowers dried out, and there…
Focus on Your Good Features
Buddha gave some simple yet effective advice for people who want to change themselves: Focus on your good features. Most of us encounter various hurdles in life. It might be the growing number of weeds in your garden, a fungal infection in your body, or…
So, What is Meditation?
For me, the idea of meditation and its practice are one and the same, but then again, who doesn’t make such claims when they believe their ideas to be right? In this case, however, I can safely share my ideas about meditation with you, because…
There are Moments that…
Sometimes it’s the curtains flitting about in a soft, relaxing summer breeze. Sometimes it’s to wrap yourself up in your mother’s arms. It’s the strange, dazzling sparkles that fly around when you look at your loved one. Sometimes it’s bitter like a cup of black…
Price versus Value
When teachers are not fully enlightened, their words are inevitably ignorant because their perceptions are uncertain. They can occasionally talk about the right things when they feel connected to their minds’ true nature, but they cannot explain things correctly all the time. Even if they…
The Nature of Consciousness
Buddhist thinking considers the whole of existence to be six dimensional in space-time, but it might be misleading to perceive these dimensions as physical ones.
