"While you are engaging in the practice of giving you should do so with great happiness and radiance on your face. One should practice giving with a smile and with mental uprightness." — 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso

According to Buddhist view, a human life is very precious and rare. Beyond our day-to-day needs and concerns, we all have the ability to attain spiritual realizations and benefit others. By so doing, we tap into our potential and the path of a meaningful life.

Seems like meditation is ubiquitous, with so many variants out there. But is our meditation practice familiarizing our mind with virtuous positive views and leading to more mental peace – both today and in the future? Perhaps it’s something to meditate on.

Be the mind of the best you! Since the “self” is a projection of the mind, we need not identify with painful or limiting versions of ourself. We can work on developing a peaceful, happy, generous mind and identify with that.

“We ourselves are responsible for discovering our own peace and liberation. We cannot say some other power, like God, is responsible – if we do, we are weak and not taking responsibility for the actions of our own body, speech and mind.” - Lama Yeshe

"To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self." – Dōgen Zenji

Following up on yesterday's post about the Perfection of Wisdom. Kids, don't forget...

“Through the practice of sitting still and following your breath as it goes out and dissolves, you are connecting with your heart. By simply letting yourself be, as you are, you develop genuine sympathy towards yourself.” - Chögyam Trungpa

“The present moment is the only reality we experience because the past is already gone and the future has not yet come.” ― Shohaku Okumura

Here's hoping your spiritual efforts are joyful.

“It takes time to practice generosity, but being generous is the best use of our time.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

"It's not the appearance that binds you, it's the attachment to the appearance that binds you." - Tilopa

“Since it is impossible to fulfill all our desires or to stop unwanted things from happening to us, we need to find a different way of relating to frustrated desires and unwanted occurrences. We need to learn patient acceptance.”

Search low, search high, without and within – never know what you'll find. But it's all empty anyway...

Don’t mistake indulging your desires as self-love. It’s actually about realizing our enormous potential as human beings. By fostering our joy, compassion and wisdom, our natural happiness will grow – benefiting us and others!

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”
- Buddha Shakyamuni

"The sun of real happiness shines in your life when you start to cherish others." - Lama Zopa Rinpoche

On this Father’s Day, wishing all dads (then, now and forever) a sweet day.

From a friend: "I’m worried about reaching enlightenment. I’m not sure I qualify." Don't worry, just try. And enjoy the blessings of laughter that come your way.

According to Buddhist view, we have lived countless lives and had countless rebirths. So we have had countless mothers. Where are all these mothers? They surround us today.

Meditation and Buddhadharma are like a ferry that transports us across the water from a land full of danger and sadness to a land of safety and joy. They transform painful minds like anxiety, jealousy and isolation to minds of compassion, love and connection.

“Even if you owned a pile of diamonds the size of this Earth, the peace you’d get from that would be minimal and could never compare with that afforded by inner development.” - Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Negative minds are largely habitual. Meditation clears our mind of the uncontrolled, endless stream of thoughts, projects, concerns – and the natural peace and calm of our mind comes to the fore. Like any habit, good or bad, we have the power to change.

We have such a precious opportunity to develop our innate, natural minds – love, giving, equanimity, compassion – that give rise to joy. And to dispel negative minds that give rise to suffering. It’s a just a matter of making the effort to nurture our Buddha seed/nature.

I’m baffled by those who contend that anger is a constructive source of energy & action – it’s a deluded mind that's associated with suffering & creates problems. If we can learn to respond to difficult situations without the mind of anger, we’re more pragmatic & effective to create changes we want.