The Wise Heart: Buddhist Psychology for the West

offer my gratitude for the family and friends I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the community I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the teachings and lessons I have been given. I offer my gratitude for the life I have been given. Just as we are grateful for our blessings, so we can be grateful for the blessings of others. Now shift

In Buddhist communities, there is a ritual of forgiveness where the abbot and elders regularly bow to the community and ask forgiveness for any errors they have made in their teaching and leadership. Every year at the end of our two-month spring retreat we do this. We invite our students’ written suggestions and feedback. Then the six teachers move

“beginner’s mind.”

And then Salam described how, in a remarkable way, his consciousness expanded further. He knew it was his body lying below, but now he felt he was also the boot kicking the body. He was also the peeling green paint on the prison walls, the goat whose bleat could be heard outside, the dirt under the guard’s fingernails—he was life, all of it and the

Buddhist psychology outlines twenty-five categories of inner light, from luminous clouds and fireflies, to dazzling light like the noonday sun. When this inner light arises there also comes rapture, happiness, expansion, and the ability to enter into the profound states of silence called jhana.

Goleman, Daniel. Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003.

smallest details of life appear vibrant and delightful. Both Buddhist psychology and Western psychology have championed the need to include the body as part of a wise psychology.

The ability to concentrate brings vitality and clarity to any activity, whether basketball, computer programming, or chess. It enhances lovemaking and turning pottery; it is essential to making music, writing legal contracts, or forging complex business deals. In each of these areas, the ability to focus is crucial.

After many repetitions, strong love for oneself can be established. Then the loving-kindness practice is systematically extended to others by categories. First we visualize and offer love to our benefactors, then loved ones, friends, neutral people, and eventually difficult people, even our enemies. Next, we extend the well-wishing of loving-kindne

May I learn to see the arising and passing of all things with equanimity and balance. May I be open and balanced and peaceful.