Daily Dharma

If you set egoic goals for the purpose of freeing yourself, enhancing yourself or your sense of importance, even if you achieve them, they will… Read More »Reject the Notion of “A Means to an End”

Hence, it is quite false to imagine that Zen is a sort of individualistic, subjective purity in which the monk seeks to rest and find… Read More »The First and Foremost Fact About Zen

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,this is the… Read More »The Best Season

A few years ago, a dying friend read me some lines from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata. They made me smile. Virtuous King Yudhistara (the son of Yama, the… Read More »How Would You Like to Die?

Concerning sorrow,The beginning of sorrow,The eightfold way,And the end of sorrow.Then at last she is safe.She has shaken off sorrow.She is free. The Buddhafrom The… Read More »Concerning Sorrow

The Tao has never had a namesimple and though smallno one can command itif a lord upheld itthe world would be his guestwhen Heaven joins… Read More »The Taoteching #32

Yet for all the ease with which we connect and feel close to our pets and other animals, we all too often remain indifferent to… Read More »On Connectedness with Animals

“‘If a sage contemplates rightly on a mountain peak, the effects are perceptible a thousand miles away.’ Is that a ‘useless and selfish shutting away… Read More »On Service

. . . Whenever you experience difficulties, you hear the words of the guru. This is the point at which one begins to gain independence… Read More »The Evolution of Your Relationship with Your Spiritual Guide

Do you carry feelings of guilt about something you did — or failed to do — in the past? This much is certain: you acted… Read More »On Guilt