Kindness; Spiritual Progress – September 6, 2012

Kindness; Spiritual Progress Yes, kindness counts. Yes, you should be kind to your neighbors, your co-workers, everybody, even and especially yourself. When a good friend comes over to spend time with you do you treat them kindly or harshly? I hope you answered kindly. It would be nice, ideal in fact, if we treated everyone who visits us kindly. If you’re like me though, you probably have some work to do. It is a bit…

Continue reading

Curiosity; Spiritual Progress – September 5, 2012 Meditation

Curiosity; Spiritual Progress Approaching life and certainly our Buddhist practice with curiosity can be hugely rewarding. Frequently I am asked if it is all right to practice in a certain way, or at a certain time of day, and so forth. I think it can be very beneficial to just try something and see how it works for you.

Continue reading

Humility; Spiritual Progress – September 4, 2012 Meditation

Humility; Spiritual Progress There are many things we can engage in which will either hinder or help our spiritual progress. One thing that can impede our progress is to have a mind that we already know all there is to know, that there is no further progress to be made. “There were also two thousand Sravakas, some of whom had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter I)

Continue reading

In Present Lifetime – August 31, 2012 Meditation

In Present Lifetime From the perspective of the Lotus Sutra we believe that enlightenment is possible in this lifetime, in this moment. Yet to many people this just seems so difficult to believe, perhaps even impossible to believe. In the lifetime of the Buddha while it was true that some people were told they could never attain enlightenment, such as the Sravakas, it was still generally believed that eventually it would be possible. Within the…

Continue reading