Essential Guide to Working With Difficult Emotions

In Japan, Jizo Bodhisattva is the “guardian of children who have died.” Zen priest and grief counselor Dojin Sarah Emerson recalls how the Jizo Ceremony helped after the death of her daughter.

In this classic piece from the Lion's Roar archives, Joseph Goldstein explores the different types of fear, and how we can sit with fear and hold onto it in our practice.  

You needn't give harbor to thoughts of ill will, says Lewis Richmond, no matter how justified they seem to be.

If you know how to use it, says Melvin McLeod, the energy of anger becomes fierce and compassionate wisdom. Even the buddhas get angry about injustice.

The Buddha laid out a four-step path to freedom from difficult emotions. Anyen Rinpoche says the secret is understanding why our emotions cause suffering.

Zen teacher Karen Maezen Miller explains Bodhidharma's famous practice of wall-gazing.

Denying anger or giving in to it only makes things worse. The middle way, says Josh Korda, is to live with your difficult emotions skillfully.

Anxiety is actually a necessary part of our path. Psychotherapist Bruce Tift gives an instruction in how to relate to it constructively.

The teachers are asked how a meditator deals with episodes of depression.

Grief, fear and despair are part of the human condition. Each of these emotions is useful, says Miriam Greenspan, if we know how to listen to them.

A moving account by Susan Moon of her journey back from depression, and how her Buddhist practice both helped and hindered her.

To be without a reference point is the ultimate loneliness. It is also called enlightenment.