Tag: suffering

Why the sangha is important

sangha

When I first me my teacher, Bhante Sujatha, he told me the thing I was missing in my practice was the sangha. Which at that time I really knew nothing about. I suppose I thought of the sangha as a…

The coming of Fall

death

Once a year, at least here in the Midwest, everyone celebrates death and decay. Sound odd? Well it’s true. And I’m not referring to Halloween either! Fall is coming soon, and everyone revels in the beautiful colors as the season…

How to pick a good teacher

good teacher

Recently someone new to Buddhism asked the question of how to pick a good teacher. I found this to be a very powerful question, and one that I would not want to answer frivolously. Also, I can see clearly that…

Bearing witness

bearing witness

The First Noble Truth, “there is suffering”, would seem very self-evident. But how can we come to a deeper and more personal understanding of this? Even to try to define suffering can become an endless discussion and contain a myriad…

How to fix yourself

fix

The first step in fixing yourself is to understand that you are not broken. You may be hurt, down-hearted, alone, depressed, or angry, but you are not broken. Yet still you may struggle, as I do, with feeling as though…