Category: Dharma in Daily Life
7 Life and Death Questions
Michael Hebb, founder of Death Over Dinner, offers some important questions to guide your contemplation of mortality.
The Ultimate Gift
Mushim Patricia Ikeda’s parents gave her baby sister to an aunt living an ocean away. This act of generosity changed the way she thinks about giving.
Pema Chödrön’s Three Methods for Working with Chaos
Pema Chödrön describes three ways to use our problems as the path to awakening and joy.
Must one be a monk to attain enlightenment?
The teachers are asked whether it is necessary to be a monk to attain enlightenment.
Four Reflections That Strengthen Your Intention to Practice
If you contemplate these traditional contemplations, the "four great reflections," you will strengthen your intention to practice.
In the Moments of Non-Awakening
Larry Yang takes an honest look at what it means to be a dharma teacher who hasn’t been, and doesn’t imagine ever being, enlightened.
The Way of Flowers
Joan Stamm on how the Japanese art of flower arranging taught her to appreciate her mother—and the seeds she planted in Stamm’s heart.
How to Set Better Boundaries
Guided by Buddhist teachings on the brahmaviharas, Elizabeth Hernandez-Stomp helps us learn when to say yes and how to say no.
The True Nature of a Flower
For Valerie Brown, her garden is a teacher of the dharma. In every bloom she sees impermanence, nonself, and nirvana.
How to Be a Friend Until the End
According to Frank Ostaseski, offering care to someone who’s dying is like meditation: there’s no one right way, but practice helps, and so do basic guidelines.
The Immeasurable Beauty of Queerness
Taryn Stickrath-Hutt shares her journey as a queer woman and Jodo Shinshu Buddhist, drawing inspiration from the infinite light of Amida Buddha.
Detox Your Mind: 5 Practices to Purify the 3 Poisons
Five Buddhist teachers share practices to clear away the poisons that cause suffering and obscure your natural enlightenment.
How Listening Becomes a Spiritual Practice
Everything and everyone are always teaching us the dharma, says Christian McEwen. We just have to know how to listen.
The Sutra That Saved Me
Nichiren practitioner Johnny Edward Dean Jr. reflects on how his daily practice and chanting the Odaimoku helped him navigate mental health challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic.
How Travel Opens Your Mind and Heart
Travel wakes us up to the world. Three personal stories of transformational travel in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Yemen.
How to Be a Bodhisattva
It may seem like an unattainable ideal, but you can start right now as a bodhisattva-in-training. All you need is the aspiration to put others first.
5 Buddhists on How the Buddha Nourishes Their Life
How does the Buddha nourish your life and practice? Five Buddhists contemplate this question.
Shall I Stay or Shall I Go?
More people than ever before are changing jobs, or at least thinking about it. To help you decide, says Dan Zigmond, contemplate the nature of change.
Running into Joy
Sometimes sitting with her sadness becomes too difficult. But Vanessa Zuisei Goddard has learned she can run with it—and through it.
How to Be a Mindful Bodhisattva
Mindfulness is more than just a meditation practice. Mindfulness is life, and life is love. That’s why it’s the whole path of the bodhisattva, says Zen teacher Norman Fischer.