“If you are lost in the forest, that is not really being lost. You are really lost if you forget who you are.”

In the Buddhist way of understanding, our human body is considered exceedingly precious because it provides the necessary conditions to realize freedom and true happiness. We begin with a systematic training of mindfulness of the body. In sitting and walking, in eating and moving, we cultivate mindfulness. We develop the ability to come into the

Here is the basic psychological law: What is past is over. It cannot be changed. We will inevitably receive the result of our past intentions and actions. Our freedom lies in how we respond to these results. Our response creates new karma, new patterns that will eventually bear fruit. By creating a healthier future we can redeem the past.

” The key to wise thought is to sense the energy state behind the thought. If we pay attention, we will notice that certain thoughts are produced by fear and the small sense of self. With them will be clinging, rigidity, unworthiness, defensiveness, aggression, or anxiety. We can sense their effect on the heart and the body. When we notice this

Paradoxically, letting go is both the goal and the path.

To be wise we need to be able to enter each role fully, with awareness and compassion, and to let it go when our part is done.

So when a painful experience arises we often try to get rid of it, and when a pleasant experience arises we try to grasp it. When a neutral experience arises we tend to ignore it. We’re always wanting the right (pleasant) feelings and trying to avoid the wrong (painful) ones.

” With delusion, we lose perspective, we cling, we forget our luminous true nature. Alan Watts called this “the taboo against knowing who you are.”

Nevertheless, the Buddha did teach about past lives on many occasions. This teaching serves two important psychological functions. When the circumstances of suffering and pleasure in our life are attributed to our past lives and past deeds, anxiety about a capricious, chaotic fate is eased. This perspective can bring acceptance, ease, detachment,