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The Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path (ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo) is the core Buddhist framework that describes the path of practice toward Liberation from Suffering. It is divided into 3 sections: Wisdom, Action, and Meditation/Integration. The section on Wisdom (pañña) 1. Right (or Wise) View (sammā-diṭṭhi ) (2.28.17 on Suffering and 3.7.17 on Karma) 2. Right Intention (sammā-sankappa)…
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On Purification, Trauma, and the Nervous System
A talk given at Insight Meditation South Bay on nervous system physiology and trauma. Discussed healing as purification. Meditation Orientation to the environment through the senses
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On romantic love & attachment
Immediately after giving this talk at Haas Business School on the historical issues and philosophical problems around the conception of mind and body as separate, I zipped on my bike over to Satsang and talked about romance and grasping. Bang! Pow! Meditation On intimacy
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On the “mind-body connection” in yoga & meditation
Talk given at Haas Business School on Valentine’s day. They asked me to talk about the “mind-body connection” in yoga so I talked about how there’s really no such thing. How Descartes was wrong, etc. They were great.
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10 Perfections (pāramī) to Cultivate on the Path
The doctrinal list known as the 10 Perfections, or pāramī, has only a small place in the earliest layer of the Buddhist teachings, but by the time the Pāli Canon was being fully assembled and the Mahāyāna revolution was well-underway, the list became one of the central frameworks for describing the qualities that aspiring Buddhas, or…
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Self-judgment, karma and Selflessness (anattā)
How self-judgment is interwoven with the unfolding of Action and its Results, or kamma/karma, and the implications for our sense of self, leading to the subtle and difficult teaching of Selflessness, or anattā.
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The 3 Characteristics (tilakkhaṇa)
The 3 Characteristics or Marks (tilakkhaṇa) of all conditioned things. These three comprise the core insights that begin the path of Liberation from Suffering in the Theravāda tradition. 1. Impermanence, the constancy of Change (anicca) 2. Unsatisfactoriness, the first Noble Truth, Suffering (dukkha) 3. Selflessness, Emptiness of Independent Essence (anattā)
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The 5 Ethical Precepts (sīla)
Buddhism as a liberation path is a gradual purification of the heart that takes root as we see more clearly, stop clinging so much, and grow out of confusion about who we are into the maturity called wisdom. Wisdom is expressed partly as understanding: everything changes, and many things hurt, but there’s an openness, a…