Zen and the Art of Monastery Maintenance
I spent a month living pretty much like a monk, in the local monastery. Here is what I learned....
The Contemplative Life
I am about to leave on a one-month meditation retreat. Here is why....
The Self-Liberating Mind
Hello everyone What does it mean to be doing well? There are two answers resonate with me here. One is when you feel like you are making steady progress on accomplishing your goals, and the other is when you are entirely carefree. The latter of the two tens to be...
Taking Children Seriously II
Taking Children Seriously (TCS) is simply the philosophy that it is both possible and desirable to raise a child without coercion. That's it....
The Virtue of Bodhicitta
Hello everyone, I want to start this letter with some good news. One month ago I wrote up a letter A Case for Giving, encouraging all of you to read Peter Singer's The Life You Can Save (which you can get for free) and donating to the not-for-profit...
David Whyte and the Man with No Head
In this piece I discuss to novel pointers to the intimacy of the present moment: Douglas Harding's teachings into headlessness and the poety of David Whyte....
Until we meet again
Hello everyone, As always, I hope you are all doing well. In this letter, I would like to say goodbye. Well, at least for the time being. Tomorrow I will be leaving for a five-week-long meditation retreat and will not be in touch with anyone. So this will be the...
If reincarnation were real
Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing very well. Last week I was at an Effective Altruism social event and the topic of death came up. I was speaking to a practising Buddhist who was curious about what I thought about reincarnation. I was able to respond to her...
Beyond Good and Evil
There is no such thing as good, there is no such thing as evil. At least not in the way many of us believe. We sentient beings want nothing more than to live happily in the world....
How to cut through suffering
Hello everyone, I start these emails the same way every time, but I do hope you are doing well. I was wondering, have you ever heard the term avidya? It means ignorance in Sanskrit. In Buddhist traditions it is believed that ignorance is the root of all suffering. That is;...
Quote
All things are impermanent. Death comes without warning. This body too will be a corpse.Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Book Recommendation
Journey to the Present
Life is suffering. This statement is widely recognised as the first of the four noble truths of Buddhism. The only thing is, it’s wrong. The Buddha never said it. The word he used to describe life was the Pali word “dukkha”. This word often is mistranslated as suffering, but...
On Radical Compassion
Hatred. Anger. Jealousy. These are all forms of suffering. These are all mental defilements. It is in your own interest to banish these demons from your mind. Even from a purely selfish point of view, it can be said that there are some emotions we would truly be better off...
The Absolute Truth
Venkataraman was a seemingly ordinary sixteen year old. One day he found himself suddenly paralysed with a fear of death. He laid down on the floor of his uncle’s study convinced he was about to die. Instead of remaining terrified he asked himself; “Who was it that was about to die?"...