” What we take to be a self is tentative, fictitious, constructed by clinging, a temporary identification with some parts of experience. Self arises, solidifying itself, like ice floating in water. Ice is actually made of the same substance as water. Identification and clinging harden the water into ice. In a similar way, we sense ourself as

Two thousand years before Freud and Jung probed the unconscious, Buddhist psychology taught about the unconscious foundation of human behavior. It described this foundation as having two different levels: first, the individual unconscious, and second, the universal unconscious, called storehouse consciousness. Though these levels are not ordinarily

Buddhist psychology wants us to release unhealthy desires and hold healthy desires lightly.

My friends, it is through the establishment of the lovely clarity of mindfulness that you can let go of grasping after past and future, overcome attachment and grief, abandon all clinging and anxiety, and awaken an unshakable freedom of heart, here, now. —Buddha

A mirror reflects all things, yet remains bright and shining, unchanged by whatever images, beautiful or terrible, may appear within it. A brief meditation can help you to understand. After you read the next three sentences, look up from the book. Sit quietly and try to stop being aware. Don’t be conscious of any sounds, any sights, any

The word nobility does not refer to medieval knights and courts. It derives from the Greek gno (as in gnosis), meaning “wisdom” or “inner illumination.”

The art of living is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive. —Alan Watts

The mindfulness training of RAIN—recognition, acceptance, investigation, and non-identification—provides the basic alphabet of working with emotion.

modern life, the person with such a temperament drives a car with a relaxed, easy attention and moves gracefully in traffic. When individuals with a grasping temperament enter a room, they see whatever is pleasing and linger upon it. They leave most pleasant circumstances slowly and with regret. When meeting new people, they seize on trivial