Category: Buddhism

On Wearing Malas

I’m as eclectic and contrarian about Buddhism as I am about Western religions. I’d like to say that I come from a long line of eclectic contrarians, but thanks to the Holocaust I’ll never know much about my ancestors’ personalities. My meditation practice is primarily what you might call Zen light, or mindfulness, or insight/vipassana,…

Read More

Music

…music is far more than a delivery mechanism for words of comfort. I believe that good music can cut through what Buddhists call the “monkey mind” — the chattering that distracts us from what is in the here and now.

Smiling and Living Fully

Even the present is filtered through a Rube Goldberg mechanism we call a brain. Which is why we do the best we can to accomplish what sounds like a paradox — quieting our mind in order to be mindful.

5 Key Words — Mel’s Mouth Glossary

Words unite us and words divide us, whether they are understood as intended or not. I live in an area where I sometimes get asked: “Are you a Christian?” My reply: “Probably not in the sense that you intended.” I post in melsmouth.com the words I need to write in the hope that you need…

Read More

Happy Birthday, Thay!

Thay’s messages are simple. He conveys them over and over again: Stop. Breathe. Enjoy the moment. Listen mindfully to others. Cultivate your compassion. Speak and act from love.

I Love Autumn

I wonder what it is that predisposed me, or opened me up, to fall, autumn colors, impermanence and Buddhism.

Becoming a Laureate

Many of us — at least those born into the developed nations of the world, knowing that our basic needs will be met — start life thinking that anything is possible. Fame and fortune may await us.

Resonance

…It’s a something-ness we don’t yet understand. It may simply be the quality of being fully right here now in the present moment that awakens our Resonance. It may be the sense that overwhelms us when we look up at the sky on a clear dark night or hear a particular musical passage.

Belief in God

After all, as the Buddha seemed to understand, everything in our universe is made of the same cosmic dust particles that are ever-moving, ever-changing, ever-dancing, and always connecting and reconnecting.

Marpa’s Grief

Buddhism…recognizes that we spend most of our lives here in the “relative” world, where pain is very real and nothing to be ashamed of.