At Home In The World: Stories and Essential Teachings From A Monk's Life

Thanks to the wisdom of nondiscrimination, called upeksha in Sanskrit, we do not fight, quarrel, or compete with one another.

This is very important. It was because I didn’t belong to any particular country that I had to make an effort to break through and find my true home. The feeling that we are not accepted, that we do not belong anywhere and have no national identity, can provoke the breakthrough necessary for us to find our true home.

The suffering we touched doing this kind of work was so deep that if we did not have a reservoir of spiritual strength, we would not have been able to continue. During those days, we practiced sitting and walking meditation, and eating our meals in silence in a very concentrated way. We knew that without this kind of discipline, we would fail in ou

If we live near a park or a riverbank, we can enjoy walking meditation there, and the park or river becomes part of our community.

Sometimes when I practice calligraphy, I invite my mother, my father, or my teacher to draw the circle with me. Drawing the circle together, I touch the insight of no self, and it becomes a deep practice of meditation. The meditation, work, joy, and life become one.

We can remind ourselves every day that the practice isn’t about getting somewhere or achieving something. The practice itself is the very joy and peace we are seeking. The practice is the destination.

Are you planting seeds of joy and peace? I try to do exactly that with every step. Peace is every step. Shall we continue our journey?

All companies are striving for success, and there’s a strong desire to be “number one.” That is why many young people invest all their time and energy into their work, into their company, and they don’t have time to take care of their body, their feelings, their emotions, and their relationships.

That moment of profound silence in the temple had changed him. He allowed the lives of all living beings to fill his heart, and he saw the senselessness and destructiveness of war. What made it all possible was that moment of complete and total stopping and opening to the powerful, healing, miraculous ocean called silence.