A Prayer for the New Year
Oh great compassionate Buddha!
A new year has finally arrived–bright, new, and hopeful.
Temple bells sound an auspicious beginning.
There is a freshness in the air,
And everything speaks of change
From old into new.
Oh great compassionate Buddha!
A new year has finally arrived–bright, new, and hopeful.
Temple bells sound an auspicious beginning.
There is a freshness in the air,
And everything speaks of change
From old into new.
Oh great, compassionate Buddha!With sadness, pride, and gratitude,We would like to honor service personnelWho have given their lives to save others.We have seen them file onto ships, climb intoThe cockpits of fighter jets, andJoin long convoys.With a final salute, they disappearedFrom our vision, and from our lives. Oh great, compassionate Buddha!In order to save the…
The Avatamsaka Sutra says, ‘The mind controls everything.’ In order to properly control body and speech, we must come to understand our minds. If we can control our minds, we can do anything. Master Xingkong (780-862) wrote a wonderful passage that expresses this point very well. He said, “The practice of Buddhism can be compared…
One of the great advantages of sitting meditation is that you can take it with you wherever you go. Whether you are in a forest deep in the mountains or beside a stream among the grass and reeds, you can develop meditative concentration just by sitting down and crossing your legs. But what is meditation?…
Dharma is for people. There is one thing about the Dharma that I am completely sure of: the Dharma is for people. The Buddha’s teachings are not a cold philosophy designed merely to rearrange the concepts in our minds, they are a living act of compassion intended to show us how to open our hearts.…
While the Four Noble Truths explain the phenomena of the universe, the Buddha expounded on them mainly as a guide for life. It is inadequate, however, to merely learn the Four Noble Truths. We must resolve, cultivate and practice accordingly. We must end the causes of suffering, practice the path, and reach the cessation of…