The various Buddhist traditions differ in their interpretation of nirvana, but in general, nirvana is the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice. Although beyond words, we might describe nirvana as a cessation. Nirvana represents the end of suffering and complete liberation from the karmic cycle. In some Buddhist traditions nirvana is synonymous with enlightenment. Others view it as a significant step along the way to full Buddhahood.

Nirvana is a Sanskrit word that may be translated as extinction. In Theravadan Buddhism it is often referred to in the Pali language, as nibbana. So, what is it that goes extinct when we reach nirvana? Nirvana is the cessation of samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth that we experience as suffering.

If we find the notion of rebirth challenging, that’s ok. We can see evidence of samsara in this one life. Despite our best efforts at getting what we want and avoiding what we don’t want, our satisfaction is short lived. We feel trapped in a never-ending cycle of wins and losses, destined to always be striving for more.

To experience nirvana is to experience total freedom from the hamster wheel of unenlightened living. Gone is our suffering and its causes. We’re fairly adept at finding temporary relief for life’s pains. To reach nirvana, however, is to find a permanent solution. It is the end of suffering and the end of future suffering, in this life and the next.

What Causes Nirvana?

Buddhist teachings on nirvana and enlightenment begin with the teachings on the four noble truths. These teachings remind us that because the pain we experience has a karmic cause, there is also a cause to its cessation.

The question might then become, not ‘How do you reach nirvana?’, but ‘What causes nirvana?’ Nirvana is not a far-off place but a state of being, an experience we can access right here and now. It is caused by overcoming the perpetual reactivity that drives us to repeat our past mistakes. Following a practice of awakening liberates us by opening our eyes to the true causes of happiness.

The causes of this freedom are encompassed within the three-fold training of ethics, meditation and wisdom. By minimizing harm, training our minds and developing the capacity to see things as they truly are, we create new causes and conditions that give rise to the Buddha within.

Nirvana versus Enlightenment

In some Buddhist traditions, there is a difference between nirvana and enlightenment, or bodhi. While nirvana is the cessation of suffering, bodhi signifies full enlightenment. It is a continued process whereby we become a Buddha with the intent to help liberate all others from their pain, too.

As we progress along any authentic spiritual path and our lives become more joyful, it’s only natural to want to share that happiness with others. This is how bodhicitta, the awakened heart, begins to develop. A bodhisattva, although fully capable of never taking another rebirth, intentionally returns to samsara until all beings everywhere are liberated.

Experiencing Nirvana

Meditation can give us a taste of nirvana. By observing our experience without judgment, we learn there’s actually no need to react to it or change it. We learn to relax and let go of our attempts to grasp or avoid things. It feels good when we realize we can be ok (and even happy) in this moment, just as it is.

At first, the peace we get from meditation is soon forgotten as we go about our busy day. With practice, however, we can reach a point of no return in which we never forget. This is nirvana.

In a practical sense, signs of spiritual enlightenment and awakening may include the following:

• You become less attached to people, places and objects
• You become less avoidant and more capable of being present with your pain
• You become less reactive and more emotionally stable
• You start letting go of your past story, and allow for change
• You become less judgmental and more open minded
• You begin to see things as they are, versus as you are
• You feel less separate and more connected to others as well as to the earth
• You become more trusting of your intuition
• Your teacher presents themselves to you
• You become more aware of the suffering of others
• You feel driven to help others experience nirvana, too

To experience nirvana is to have realized our Buddha nature. In nirvana, we experience life and this world as a Buddha would, completely liberated from the past conditioning that has caused us to think we were ever anything but enlightened.

This is a mode of being that is beyond words, only fully understood by the one who experiences it. We do know that it’s possible, however, for the Buddha was once a suffering human too.

The post How Do You Reach Nirvana? appeared first on Mindworks.

The four reminders or contemplations are very powerful and productive because they lead us to examine what we’ve been doing with our lives and show us how to align our actions with our values and goals. The four reminders may also be translated as the four thoughts or reflections that transform the mind or turn it around. How so? Because they turn the mind away from its narrow limitations towards a deeper and more spiritually authentic life. These four are often prescribed as the first things we should contemplate when we begin to connect with the Buddhist teachings.

What are the four reminders? They are the preciousness of our human life; its impermanence; karma—actions and results; and the suffering inherent in our experience of the world. We’ll discuss them in this order, but they can be explored in any sequence and still make perfect sense.

Precious human existence

Buddhism champions the idea that the potential for awakening is present in the mindstream of every living being. Mind’s fundamental nature is pure, even when mind’s qualities are heavily obscured. To illustrate this, we might use the analogy of a seed. A seed may have genetic potential, but it can’t sprout and thrive unless it’s in the right soil, the right medium. And it would seem that a particular type of human life has certain attributes which makes it the ideal medium for the seed of awakening to come to fruition.

Acknowledging this gives us confidence. It sometimes seems that the message of Buddhism is sobering or perhaps even overwhelming given the emphasis on suffering and how entrapped we are in it. But for that message to be of any use, there must also be the promise that we can do something about it; we can overcome our entanglement in negativity and suffering. At the beginning of the spiritual path it’s wonderful to hear that your soil is just right for practice and fruition on the path to awakening. You have the power, ability, space, and room to develop the same qualities as the great ones of the past.

Not all human lives are equally fortunate; certain qualities define a “precious human existence.” To begin with, there’s freedom to connect with the Buddha’s teachings. Freedom means the room to turn around, to decide that we will not remain in the same old rut or give in to the same old negativities. Right now, the type of human life we have gives us enough freedom for this. We see that the animal world lacks this freedom because the rule of instinct involves a kind of encasing and heavy, deep ignorance.

It’s rather as if we’ve been in a prison and somebody’s showing us the exit sign. We can choose to leave the prison behind because we’ve met with these incredibly powerful and transformative teachings and have the freedom and desire to engage with them, which is extremely rare.

To recognize the preciousness of our human birth is a stimulus to action. It demands: do something with me. Make something of this extraordinary opportunity. Don’t be blasé. Don’t be complacent. Do not feel that life is a random accident. It’s an extraordinary wonder to be alive now. Now. This moment. What will you do with your freedom? Will you choose goodness and wisdom and compassion? Or negativity and self-indulgence?

Impermanence

I’ve just woken up to what a wonderful opportunity I have in being human and connecting with the teachings. And one thing about this situation is certain: it won’t last. How could it? It arose out of a confluence of causes and conditions. Here today, possibly gone tomorrow—soon, in any case—and therefore I should focus on getting the most out of my present good fortune by developing wisdom and compassion, the qualities of awakening.

To do this, I need to take the reflection on impermanence and death deep into my heart, because I, like all of us, will die. Is there anybody in history who has managed to avoid death? It is actually in us all right now. It’s in our bones, in the very core of our being because our life is just a temporary coming together. One day the mind and its physical encasement will separate. The time is getting nearer and nearer; death never sleeps.

If you choose to live in denial of this, you’ll never experience the full beauty and power of your human life. You might think, okay, death is certain, but you know what? I’ve got time to conquer the world. Then, when I have no strength left, I’ll turn to the Dharma. It ain’t gonna happen like that. Life is as fragile as a bubble on top of a stream: just like that, it can pop. The present moment is the only moment we can count on. The beauty of the teaching on the truth of impermanence is that it awakens us to the full potential of the present moment.

At the time of death, when mind and body have gone their separate ways, all of my routines, everything and everybody that once gave me a sense of security is gone. What can help me then? And so we come to third theme.

Karma, the law of cause and effect

If death was really the end, there would be no consequences for my actions. But the teachings tell us that mind, which is non-material, carries on. It’s like a continuum, a river of awareness and experience that carries the imprints created by our actions, reactions, and habits as it flows.

It is said that if you want insight into who you were and what you did in the past, look at what your mind and circumstances are now. And if you want to know what your future will be like, look at what you are doing and thinking now. This encapsulates the infallibility of cause and effect.

We need to understand the enormous power of our actions here and now. The future is determined by our choices, and we need to realize how impactful they are. They will determine our future in this life and in future lives. Actions and results are always congruent. If I live a life in which my way of thinking and acting is selfish, self-indulgent, and non-ethical, I lock myself into negativity and suffering for the future and self-indulgent tendencies will only increase.

In contrast, the more I choose the kind, the good, the virtuous, the positive in my actions; the more time, space, and consideration I have for others, the more I create a pattern of happiness and creativity for the future. It’s in my hands. And even seemingly inconsequential actions can become fields of virtue and bear very positive fruit if we carry them out in a spirit of wanting to benefit others. Right here, right now, the teaching on karma gives us power to be a builder of goodness for others as well as ourselves.

The suffering of imprisonment

Acknowledging our precious human birth has given us confidence about the situation we’re in. Impermanence has made us feel a sense of urgency: use it or lose it now. Karma has added to our sense of power and responsibility. Suffering, the fourth reflection, prevents us from becoming trapped and impels us to use our potential to work towards freedom. If we don’t break free from the prison of our selfishness, we remain stuck in our habitual impulses of self-privileging and the emotions that arise from it. We’re stuck in the wheel of birth and death that Buddhists call samsara.

Occasionally, through the ripening of some positive actions, we have good opportunities for a time. But generally we allow the velocity of our self-indulgence to propel us into looking for happiness where it isn’t to be found, creating just another misery, another prison for ourselves. It’s as if we were wandering from one prison to another in a vast prison camp. That’s samsara.

Before someone who is imprisoned can even consider leaving, they need to recognize that they’re stuck. We human beings crave security, often to the detriment of freedom. We can behave like complacent, domesticated prisoners, which is why someone needs to shout: You are in prison! in our ear.

Some prisons are like brutal dungeons where suffering is really intense and obvious. Others may seem like a holiday camp where there are all kinds of comforts and luxuries. But it’s still a prison because you have no interest in leaving, and when what you thought was an endless vacation ends, your desolation and anguish will know no bounds. You thought you’d snagged permanent bliss forever and now you’re jettisoned downwards. Wherever you land, samsara is suffused with the pervasiveness of suffering.

By reflecting on the suffering and imprisonment of samsara, you see that their roots are in your mind, in your habits and attitudes. You need to free yourself from the shadow kingdom of ego, which is why you need to know how bad it is. When somebody comes and tells you you’re in a prison it seems like depressing news, but it’s not. Because the other thing is that you don’t need to be stuck. You have every power to be free of this. In fact your mind has never been compromised or stained. It always retains its purity.

Look into your mind. You may not be very experienced in meditation, but when you are sitting on your cushion or outside, maybe in a peaceful place, look into your mind. Try to look at the moment, the gap between thoughts. The uncontaminated, unconditioned free mind is there, and once you’ve experienced that space, you can’t doubt it. It’s a space far beyond the prison camp of samsara. The key to freedom is already in your mind. Here and now is where the work of liberation begins.

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When the Buddha interacted with people over twenty-five hundred years ago, he was always answering questions. Walking across the North Indian plains and meeting all kinds of people, he gave thousands of instructions that responded to their questions. After his passing, his students summarized these teachings and gave them a structure, which was helpful because the Buddha had presented different methods at different times according to his followers’ needs and understanding.

This classification of his teachings is called abhidharma in Sanskrit (abhidhamma in Pali), a term which can translate as the higher doctrine. It is thought of as the teaching that clarifies the multitude of the Buddha’s talks because it provides a coherent outline of his path to liberation. When you study the abhidharma there are lots of categories—five of this, eight of that, fifty-one of these, and so on. It can be tempting to think, Oh stop! Enough already! But again, it’s presented this way because it gathers and organizes the different elements of the Buddha’s instructions within a systematic structure.

What does the abhidharma teach?

There are aspects that may remind us of psychology, but as we read it, we should note that it’s not just a psychology of knowing the mind, it is first and foremost the psychology of how to experience awakening and attain liberation. The intention of Buddhist psychology is to investigate what enables liberation from suffering and what hinders it. All of the categories presented in the abhidharma track the path to liberation. They enable us to work on eliminating the obstacles we experience due to habitual views and opinions, and, in so doing, to open wide the path to freedom.

The basis of abhidharma is the teaching called the four noble truths, or the four truths of the noble ones. These begin with the first: insights into the presence of suffering and stress that are experienced by everyone everywhere. The second noble truth addresses the reason why. What are the causes? Is there a way out? Yes, there is a way out, and this is the third noble truth. How do we get there? Fourth noble truth. So we’ve got a list of four that is actually the structure of a very natural path of discovery: how to eliminate confusion and become free.

The root of all abhidharma teachings is present in these four truths or understandings. If we’re inspired to learn more, then we’ll be encouraged to reflect on impermanence, suffering, and non-self: a structure of three. And now we have a helpful orientation that summarizes a great many different explorations.

We might think of Buddhist psychology as a subjective science because it does not involve an approach where someone observes someone else’s reactions and emotions. It’s a subjective approach where each participant shares their personal experiences and insights. Many highly accomplished meditators have done exactly this over the centuries, and the combined sharing of their personal insights has become “Buddhist psychology.” They describe what kind of obstacles were encountered along the path, how they were dissolved, what was discovered, how the next challenges arose and were mastered, and so on. So Buddhist psychology is a map of mental and spiritual development on the path to awakening; a precious map that makes it easy for others to orient themselves and find their way.

One main aspect of Buddhist psychology focuses on how motivation impacts the outcomes of situations. Motivational psychology is linked to the law of karma, cause and effect. The other main aspect of Buddhist psychology is the psychology of perception. This focuses on how errors and biases in perception arise and explores how to dissolve them systematically until perception has become completely free of all veils and filters.

While Buddhist psychology and Western psychology are quite compatible, the focus is different because Buddhist psychology is always directed towards liberation and awakening. They do overlap sometimes, especially when it comes to investigating the process of perception. Here, the conclusions of modern psychology are identical with what Buddhist meditators have discovered about how perception works, how it is filtered by emotions, how it is immediately processed according to prior experiences or innate biases, and so on.

These two approaches also agree that a person’s motivation or outlook completely colors their experience of the world. Furthermore, in the last thirty years modern psychology has abandoned all notions of a stable, individual self. Both now describe the individual self as a constant dynamic process of adaptation.

And there are differences. Western psychology is only beginning to investigate the importance of positive qualities such as compassion, love, generosity, and the like. Buddhist psychology has focused on their development for centuries as they are considered the transcendent qualities (paramita in Sanskrit) that lead to liberation.

There are also the four immeasurable qualities of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In his core teachings, the Buddha repeatedly stated that they are central to human development and encouraged his followers to explore them. For example, what are the different degrees and dimensions of compassion? How does it arise? And what about awareness? It is the source of all understanding, but how does awareness express its full potential?

These questions were the focus of the meditators who could be considered the founders of Buddhist psychology. They would investigate suffering and its causes as long as they needed to, and then they would turn their attention exclusively to developing the positive qualities that illuminate the path to awakening. And with this, they created a very solution-oriented, resource-based psychology rooted in qualities which are considered to be inherent in mind. This is another important point of Buddhist psychology: we are born with everything we need to wake up. These qualities don’t need to be fabricated, but we do need to open up to them so that they can fully blossom. And we do this by learning about the mind and training on the cushion, just like the great meditators have done throughout the centuries.

Check out Mindworks new Buddhist course series including abhidharma teachings by clicking on the banner below.

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As we age, certain areas of the brain begin to shrink. Learning new things and processing complex concepts becomes more challenging. Memory fades and attention wanes, even for healthy adults. Recent research on the anti-aging impact of meditation indicates that as little as 15 minutes of daily practice can have protective effects which prevent cognitive decline.

Longitudinal studies of the brains of lifelong meditators find that their brain age, or biological age, appears much younger than non-meditators of the same calendar age. These studies of expert meditators suggest that meditation may be associated with slowed biological aging.

So how does meditation slow aging in your brain? Researchers think the answer is related to meditation’s effects on subtelomeric DNA methylation. This biological process shortens telomeres (the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes) and is closely associated with age-related disease. Meditation seems to protect, and may even enhance, telomere length to slow the rate of cellular aging.

Scientific imaging finds meditation can also prevent the loss of gray matter that naturally occurs with age. As gray matter declines, loss of cognitive function follows, as the brain loses volume and neurons lose the ability to communicate with one another. In long-term meditators, age-related loss of gray matter volume is less prevalent than it is in the general population.

Expert meditators may have better preserved brains than others due to the cognitive-enhancing benefits of meditation and its effect on reducing stress, improving mood, and increasing self-compassion and acceptance.

Building a Cognitive Reserve

If the loss of cognitive function that comes with aging is inevitable, we can perhaps mitigate the negative outcomes associated with this decline by building a cognitive reserve. One way to do this is to avoid the lifestyle factors that lead to shorter telomeres. These include smoking, poor diet, lack of sleep or being sedentary.

We can also strengthen our cognitive capacity. Research shows that meditation, because it combines brain state training with brain network training, is a more effective means of strengthening cognitive function than brain games designed for this same purpose.

Stress and Aging

Studies on stress and aging find those who experience significant stress, abuse, or trauma tend to have shorter telomeres and lower levels of an enzyme called telomerase. The telomerase enzyme helps keep our cells youthful by adding length (DNA) to telomeres. Anytime the stress hormone cortisol is present, telomerase activity slows down. Chronic stress, which induces oxidative stress and inflammation, erodes telomeres directly.

Minimizing stress helps keep the brain young by protecting telomeres and telomerase. Meditation is a very effective means of minimizing stress and healing trauma. This may be why meditation slows the erosion of telomeres, and can even help lengthen them again.

Improving Mood

Mood disorders, such as depression, are also associated with accelerated aging and an increased risk of age-related diseases. This may be due to the correlation between depression and consistent, low-grade systemic inflammation. Inflammation degrades telomere length, leading to cellular aging.

Heart-based meditation practices, such as loving-kindness meditation, are known to improve mood. Sending well wishes to another in the form of loving-kindness meditation helps soften our sense of the self as separate and alone. These types of meditations improve symptoms of depression and in the process, slow biological aging.

In 2016, researchers echoed previous findings that connect our perception of common humanity to improvements in self-compassion. Interestingly, this variable was also associated with longer telomere length. What’s more, they found that a loving acceptance of reality just as it is, is also related to biological youth.

Mindful Acceptance

Experiential avoidance is the name for our tendency to skirt circumstances or suppress thoughts and emotions that trigger psychological discomfort, unease or pain. Meditation, on the other hand, teaches us to be aware of whatever is arising, regardless of how it makes us feel.

Higher levels of experiential avoidance are associated with increased psychopathology, and therefore accelerated aging. Meditation promotes mental health, allowing us to be present for the fullness of our human experience, and as it turns out, keeping our brains younger too.

Meditation and Longevity

Many of the longitudinal studies mentioned above were conducted on life-long meditators, those who have been practicing since childhood. However, the age-defying benefits of meditation are not reserved for experts only.

Studies have found that loving-kindness meditation slows aging even in novice practitioners, and just 15 minutes of meditation to induce relaxation can reduce inflammation and thereby minimize telomere degradation.

More studies are needed to further substantiate these effects, but it appears that meditation can certainly help keep us healthy and focused as we age.

The post Meditation’s Potential Age-Defying Effects appeared first on Mindworks.

We all know that junk food isn’t good for our bodies, but it’s less well known that the same is true for the mind. Just as the mind’s habitual pathways change beneficially when we meditate, the mind can change in unhelpful ways when we feed it with violence, negativity, ill-will, gossip or idle chatter.

To protect your brain health it’s well known you should keep the body healthy, well-fed, well-rested and hydrated. Protecting the mind is a slightly more nuanced matter. It includes maintaining our physiological health, but also our mental, emotional and spiritual health.

To guard your mind spiritually, it helps to know what a healthy mind feels like. For example, if we eat high-sugar foods all the time, it’s hard to gain perspective regarding its impact. Abstain from sugar for 30 days, however, and we’ll be much more aware of its effects if we choose to indulge again. Likewise, if our minds are surrounded by noise, chaos, or drama more often than not, we may not have a good awareness of the impact it is having. To protect our peace of mind, we first need to know what it feels like when the mind is at peace.

One way to experience peace of mind is during meditation. With continued practice, this feeling becomes more familiar. Keep going, and we become better able to take this peace of mind with us wherever we go, even into challenging, triggering situations.

But until we’ve developed this unshakable non-reactivity, it helps to be selective about what we put in front of the mind. If health is a priority and we’re trying to abstain from too much sugar, why spend all our time in the candy shop?

Ways To Protect Your Mind

Protecting the mind begins with being more aware of what it is consuming. This includes what we watch (movies, television or social media), what we read (novels, newspapers or social feeds), and also the type of actions we engage in (gossip, ill-will, negative self-talk). There’s no neutral activity for the mind. Everything we do brings us either closer or further from spiritual health.

The following are just some ways to protect the mind. As you read through the list, notice what arises, especially if you experience aversion, resistance or defensiveness. We may not yet be ready to renounce each one of our unhelpful behaviors. But try the following in baby steps and observe how you feel. You might be encouraged to go further.

Limit Stress
Protecting your brain from stress includes physical factors such as getting enough sleep. A healthy, well-rested mind is more capable of coping. Setting boundaries can help prevent stress, while a regular meditation practice can help prevent us from making stress worse by reacting inappropriately.

Limit Violence
Be selective when it comes to what you label as entertainment and what type of news you need to know. Consistent exposure to violence changes our brains and has a negative effect on the mind and its coping abilities. Limiting violence may include minimizing harsh or divisive speech.

Limit Negativity
To protect your mind from depression it helps to limit negativity, whether it originates with others, or comes from your own inner critic. Set boundaries in conversations and do your best to avoid complaining, worst-case-scenario thinking and negative self-talk.

Limit Ill-Will
Ill-will is the act of wishing bad upon others. We may think our enemies deserve the worst, but this type of thinking, speaking or acting is unhealthy for the mind. One prevalent form of ill-will is finding entertainment in the suffering of others, so be aware of what you think is funny.

Limit Zoning Out
Sometimes we confuse resting the mind with numbing out or escaping. True rest is restorative, while scrolling through social media, binge-watching television or gossiping with friends often leaves us feeling worse.

Nourishment for the Mind

Protecting the mind does not only mean eliminating the bad, but nourishing our mind with the good. Decluttering our physical space, putting the mind outdoors in nature, and embracing quiet and solitude can all be helpful practices.

In a healthy environment for self-care we’ll also find plenty of space for meditation practice. Ultimately, developing greater wisdom and compassion is the best tool we have for ensuring cognitive, emotional and spiritual health.

The post How to Protect Your Peace of Mind appeared first on Mindworks.

The Buddha did not begin his life as “The Buddha.” He began as a child named Siddhartha who was born to a royal family over 2500 years ago in Lumbini, present-day Nepal. Soon after his birth, his father the king summoned a seer to predict the infant’s future. The seer told the king that baby Siddhartha had an extraordinary destiny. He would either become a chakravartin—an emperor who would rule over a huge realm—or a Buddha, an awakened sage who would benefit countless beings.

The king didn’t want his son to become a sage because he was counting on him to rule the kingdom one day. As a result of this, he made sure that Siddhartha’s upbringing was very sheltered. The prince grew up in a palace where he was shielded from the sufferings and difficulties of the world. He was given wonderful things to eat and drink and only kept company with the finest of friends. Everyone loved him. Everyone was always healthy. To ensure his contentment, Siddhartha was not allowed to witness or experience any difficulties.

The story goes that one day when he was a young man, Siddhartha wanted to venture outside of the palace grounds and see what the world was like. He asked his friend and charioteer Channa to take him to see the kingdom. The first day they went out he saw a person who was very old and frail. Because every person he’d ever known until then was youthful, vigorous, and attractive, he was profoundly affected by this experience. The next day he went out again and saw someone who was very ill. The third day he saw a corpse being carried to a funeral pyre. The prince was deeply moved and dismayed by these visions of old age, sickness, and death. On the fourth day he saw a monk meditating serenely under a tree.

Once home, Siddhartha asked Channa, “Will aging happen to me?” Channa replied, “Yes, my lord, old age happens to everyone who lives long enough.” “And will I get sick like the people I saw?” And Channa said, “Of course. Everyone is subject to illness.” “And will I die?” “Yes, my lord.”

Siddhartha realized how unsatisfactory his life of pleasure had been. If he was eventually going to grow old, become sick and die, where was the meaning? For me, this is one of the most fascinating aspects of the Buddha’s story because if you think about it, we too have led sheltered lives. Our ignorance and self-centeredness have shielded us from old age, sickness, and death; they have insulated us from seeing the reality of suffering that exists all around us. When Prince Siddhartha was no longer sheltered from this truth, he saw it so clearly that it radically changed something inside of him. It gave him the motivation to seek a more meaningful way of being.

We’re not quite so sensitive and intelligent as Siddhartha. We see suffering and negotiate with it. We turn to distractions and fool ourselves into thinking that the suffering has been appeased. But then it crops up again and we have to distract ourselves once more. We tend to deal with suffering by creating our own artificial pleasure palace and barricading ourselves inside of it. We can learn a lot from the Buddha’s life in this respect.

So what did Siddhartha do next? He recalled that once, while sitting under an apple tree in the garden when he was a boy, he had experienced a wonderful, spacious moment of being fully present. He felt that somehow this was the answer: he simply needed to become who he truly was. Inspired by the vision of the monk he saw meditating, Siddhartha decided to leave the palace to seek the truth of existence, and convinced Channa to take him.

At that point he was married to Princess Yasodhara and they had a young son named Rahula. I’m sure it was difficult for him to take that step. And it is difficult for us. We don’t have to physically leave our family and our home, but if we want to pursue the Buddhist path we will have to leave behind our incessant comfort-seeking and hopes of satisfying our egos. We have to trust that the awakened state of mind provides a greater, more permanent sense of well-being than anything ego has to offer. We can access this ourselves directly. Just like Siddhartha’s experience under the apple tree, we too can enjoy transcendent moments of well-being, of simple presence.

So Siddhartha left the palace, cut his hair, and switched his clothes with Channa’s. He wandered incognito and met various people on his path, including yogis and ascetics who agreed to teach him about meditation and the spiritual path. But he recognized that while the meditation practices he mastered led him to more subtle levels of mental bliss, pleasure was not what he was seeking. “I am seeking freedom from suffering, but even in an advanced meditative state, I will still be subject to birth, old age, sickness, and death. There must be something more,” he thought.

So he left these incomplete spiritual practices behind and became an ascetic. Still seeking answers, Siddhartha asked himself if the body was the source of suffering. He began to practice extreme self-abnegation in order to overcome all physical desires. He ate almost nothing and became emaciated.

After seven years of this he concluded that extreme asceticism was not the answer either. So he stood up. Very weak from his many years of deprivation, he actually fainted. Fortunately, a young milkmaid came and offered him a yogurt dish. As soon as he partook of it, he felt tremendously rejuvenated. Settling himself on a grass mat under a sacred fig tree, he vowed not to get up until he had grasped absolute truth.

It is taught that he achieved enlightenment, the awakened state of mind, that very night. As he was sitting, he grew more and more relaxed, more and more present. He was not trying to manipulate his mind, achieve an alternate state of consciousness or reach a higher level of meditation. He was just being. And the more he abided in this presence, the deeper and vaster his awareness grew.

At this point Mara—the archetypical creator of obstacles—set out to keep Siddhartha from becoming enlightened by sending his four daughters to wreak havoc. One tried to make him angry, one tried to seduce him, and so on. And in each case, Siddhartha remained unmoved. Mara’s attacks were like arrows that turned into flowers and fell to the ground before they could harm the sage. And it’s through the experiences of that evening that he achieved the fully awakened state of mind and became the Buddha.

Here again, the Buddha’s life shows us how to practice. Normally we try to push away things we don’t like, pull things we like toward us, and ignore whatever we don’t much care about. Not only material things—spiritual matters as well. We want to feel peaceful. We don’t want our meditative state of mind to be bothered by those pesky thoughts. We’d love to get rid of agitation and dullness. But we can’t. The Buddha showed us that we can learn to remain in a state of plenitude and well-being so that all of the attacks and seductions of the daughters of Mara—our own ego-centered habitual patterns—fall like flowers.

After the Buddha achieved the awakened state of mind, his next action was to think very carefully about whether other people could understand this. He saw our confusion and our egos, yet he also saw that there were people among us who could understand and promulgate the profundity of his teaching.

He set out to find the five friends who had been on his ascetic journey with him. They had parted ways when Siddhartha had decided to seek a less extreme way of practice. He found them sitting together in a grove; they recognized him from a distance and wanted to ignore him because, unacceptably to their minds, he had abandoned the ascetic path. But as he slowly and mindfully walked toward them, they saw that he had a wonderful glow about him. His presence was so radiant that they could not help but welcome him. They asked the Buddha how it was that he seemed so different. And he explained that he had found what he’d been seeking: he had found the end of suffering. It was then that the Buddha gave his first teaching, the doctrine that would become known as the Four Noble Truths.

The Buddha taught for 45 years after that, giving many instructions on how to work with mind. At the end of his life, he gathered his disciples around him and his final teaching was: work towards your own realization and liberation with diligence. “Be a light unto yourselves,” he said. And then he died.

Even his passing was a life-lesson to us. If a Buddha who has accomplished everything has to die, can we possibly escape death? Buddha’s final teaching was the powerful fact of impermanence. We all have the capacity to become awakened, as the Buddha did. But not if we continue to ignore the truth of suffering and pass up our best chance to peek outside of the pleasure palaces we’ve been perpetuating.

This article is excerpted from our new Buddhist course series – click on the banner below for more information.

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Buddhism offers a map, a path of practice. This map is usually called the Buddha’s Eightfold Noble Path; the image is of a wheel with eight spokes. What are these eight elements? How does the path evolve into actions in our lives?

The path begins with the idea that we can come to a deeper understanding of the true nature of our lives and of the world around us. It involves investigation, beginning with taking an honest look at the actions we take in our lives and cultivating a deep understanding of their consequences. We don’t always like participating in this process of assessment—we just want to be able to do whatever we choose without considering the consequences, don’t we? It’s our inner teenager saying it will do as it pleases. But as we mature, we begin to realize that our actions have consequences.

The Practices of Wisdom and Insight

This first fold of the path is usually called right view, and it refers to an understanding of karma, of consequence. I also use the term “wise view.” I think it begins with finding a way to investigate or inventory our lives. To my mind, any valid spiritual path begins with this honest appraisal. It’s a way of saying, “Hey, what am I doing to cultivate either pain and suffering or happiness and well-being in my life?”

Right view, the understanding that actions have consequences, dovetails nicely into the second practice of right intention or resolve. My view informs my intention. I may or may not be fully aware of what I intend to do, but even so, it is these intentions that lead to actions.

The intentions that we cultivate in Buddhism are intentions of kindness and compassion. These qualities of the heart naturally give rise to conduct in line with the right view of actions and consequences. How do I develop and cultivate the heart? How do I bring ease and wellbeing into my life? Now that I recognize that my life energy has an impact, what do I want to do with that? How do I cultivate a heart that steers me away from those things that cause harm and towards the things that bring skillfulness and kindness into my life and the lives of others?

Right view and right intention are often bundled together in the category of wisdom or insight, the first of three categories—wisdom, ethical conduct, and meditative practice—that regroup the eight spokes of the wheel. Once we have begun to develop wisdom, that is, an understanding of right view and right intention, it’s time to look at the category of virtuous ethical conduct or morality. This category includes right speech, right livelihood, and right action. I see that if my conduct isn’t informed by wise intention and kindness, it isn’t going to be in line with my view.

Buddhist Practices of Moral Conduct or Discipline

The ethical conduct category begins with the third spoke of the eightfold path, right speech: how do I create relationship and community with others? In order to create wise community, my speech—the way that I connect with others—needs to be in integrity. Right speech is the practice, both internally and externally, of asking myself, “Is this true? Is it useful? Is it kind? Is it timely?”

Right speech is also wise listening. It’s knowing when not to speak, when to lean into what is being communicated and following that thread, rather than saying everything that pops into the mind.

I find that the community element is really important here. For my own individual practice, I need the community of others, I need wise friendships. Community emerges from both external and internal speech. The more advanced skillful speech practice is internal—that is, it’s really paying attention to what my mind is expressing and seeing that I have some agency over that. If an unwelcome thought or emotion appears in my mind, I can be in kinder relationship to it. I can say, “Oh, wow, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed today. How can I care for myself?” If somebody says something cruel to me, my reaction can be, “Oh, those words are really about their own suffering. How can I care about that?” I’m making an effort to see that others’ actions aren’t necessarily about me, that they may be more about what’s going on with them.

The fourth fold of the path is the idea of right action, of integrity and engagement. How am I focusing my actions in a way that brings me in line with this deep view and intention? How do I engage with the world in a way that doesn’t create more suffering, confusion, or clinging, but actually gives rise to more ease and greater clarity? How can I participate purposefully in the world from a place of kindness?

The three middle spokes—right speech, action, and livelihood—really propel my mindfulness into my activity. They force me to be mindful because I have to think about how I’m going to engage with others and why. The folds of right ethical conduct have the added benefit of slowing me down so that my actions are in sync with my deepest sense of who I am, who I want to be, and what my intention is for this world. They bring me into relationship instead of reactivity. They give me a way to say, no, I’m not doing that. I’m committed to not doing that thing.

The fifth fold of the eightfold path is right livelihood—the journey of how to engage in this enterprise that is such a huge part of our lives: our work. How can I have skillful work in this world? How do I bring my energy into a desired outcome?

The pressure is so strong just to achieve, to make money, to create security rather than to think about how to live and work a life of integrity. But my work is a connected thing. I’m not just working for myself, I’m also working for an ecosystem in which I participate. I am working for something that belongs to future generations. It belongs to my family and to my society, and I have a responsibility. If so much of my life is consumed by work, why would I want that to be disconnected from everything else in my practice?

Everything in my life is practice. There’s no not practice. Practice isn’t this thing that I do once a year in a special place, and then I go back to a separate life. With this eightfold path, as taught by the Buddha, I’m striving to build a life where there is no not mindfulness, no not Dharma.

Buddhist Meditative Practices

This leads us to the final three folds of the eightfold path, the meditative practice section. These three are right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Traditionally, we would enter the path through the practices of ethics—the middle three rather than the last three. But I think that we can enter the path wherever we need to. Some of us need to enter the path through understanding, through study; some of us need to practice; and some of us need to get our lives in order. The eightfold path is not a linear one-through-eight route; it can be entered at any point of the map.

Right effort comes back again to the idea of integrity, to the idea of how I choose to make an effort, and here it requires an evaluation of what will benefit my practice. What effort is needed to bring essential stability to my practice and my mind? What will generate more skillfulness? Different meditation practices are available and I can re-evaluate to determine which meditation is most appropriate and helpful for my practice at any time.

The seventh fold is the cultivation of right mindfulness, of meditation. This is classically taught as the four foundations of mindfulness: mindfulness of breath and body; mindfulness of feeling tone experienced as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral; mindfulness of mind states; and the contemplation of different “dharmas” or groups of phenomena that we can have. Here in the West, many practitioners are especially familiar with mindfulness of the breath and of physical sensations.

It’s worth investigating how we approach being mindful. What am I cultivating as I engage in practice? What is my intentionality? The four foundations of mindfulness are not just paying attention for the sake of it, they involve how and why I am directing my mind. What is my approach to this? Paying attention to my approach brings direction to my practice.

The eighth fold of the path is right concentration. This one is vital for the development of our practice, even if we tend to brush it aside. Concentration is what creates stability of mind.

Traditionally, the Buddha would teach his monastics concentration before teaching vipassana or insight meditation. One way to develop the qualities that support concentration is by cultivating a loving heart. I have found that when I am focused on kindness and compassion, concentration naturally emerges. It’s much easier to be present and attentive to a single point of concentration when I have a heart of kindness and compassion.

Often, if I’m struggling with concentration, I will focus on the action of developing kindness not just on the cushion, but in my life in general as an action of the eightfold path. How does this work? When I’m really angry or upset, or fighting hard to develop concentration, or obsessing about something that I feel I need to have in my life, the mind is very turbulent and tense. But when mind rests in the spaciousness of the divine qualities of the heart, it’s much easier to develop settling. As a householder who isn’t in constant retreat, I need something that’s going to aid my concentration. And that’s how I’m going to find space for concentration in the midst of the busyness of my life: by cultivating a loving heart of kindness.

Read our companion article on the elements of the 8 fold path here.

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The science of compassion says the desire to relieve the suffering of others helps us feel better too. So if you’re looking for motivation to start a heart-opening practice, perhaps appealing to your own best interests is a good way to begin.

Compassion is empathy in action, it is the desire to relieve the suffering of another. To be compassionate requires we have empathy, or the capacity to sense what another is feeling. But beyond that, compassion entails that we take steps toward helping others, be it in the form of a wish or by taking action.

Although research indicates humans are naturally compassionate beings, we can all benefit from intentionally cultivating greater compassion. Our compassion (including self-compassion) is often limited by a culture that emphasizes competitiveness, criticism, or extreme self-reliance as the keys to success. We may have learned to put ourselves above all others or that compassion should only be reserved for a close few who we deem most deserving.

Because of these mistaken beliefs, we tend to fear that opening our hearts and training in compassion will weaken us. Thousands of years of Buddhist wisdom, and the latest research, teach us this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Benefits of Compassion

We all intuitively know a more compassionate world is the type of world we’d like to live in. Yet we still have our reasons why we just can’t offer compassion to that one person, or to ourselves. What will it take for us to feel personally responsible for creating the compassionate universe of our dreams? Appealing to our me-first desire to live longer, healthier, happier lives is one way.

The science says expressing affection, promoting meaningful connections, and modeling altruistic behavior benefit us in very concrete ways.

Expressing Affection

Compassion and social connection are deeply related. Those who are most compassionate are also more comfortable receiving support. This trait, the ability to give and receive care, is a meaningful predictor of health and well-being. When we are comfortable acting compassionately toward others, and receiving this expression of affection in return, we experience less loneliness and a greater sense of safety. We also become less reactive to stress.

Compassion as a means of expressing affection is significant for the giver, whether or not the recipient is aware of the compassionate act. Researchers hypothesize that stepping out of our self-focused habit is just one mechanism by which compassion minimizes anxiety and depression.

Promoting Meaning

Those who score high on compassion and self-compassion also rate life as having more meaning. They tend to be less experientially avoidant, and are more positive in the face of suffering, be it from stress, aging, or simply boredom. Assigning meaning to life also helps us live longer.

A study on volunteers found those with other-focused motives live longer than those who volunteer for self-interested reasons. Even among seniors who rate themselves as ‘happy,’ those whose happiness is tied to meaning live longer than those who define happiness as pleasure.

Inspiring Acts Of Kindness

Studies find that patients have better outcomes when their caregivers express more kindness and empathy. Compassion also makes the body more resilient to stress, strengthening immune response. Kindness could also save your life. In general, stress increases mortality, but not among those who help others.

Self-compassion matters, too, so be kind to yourself. Those with greater self-compassion are less likely to be lonely, depressed, or anxious, are more resilient to setbacks, and more likely to learn from their mistakes.

How to Cultivate Compassion

Compassion can be developed with compassion meditation such as loving-kindness meditation, the four immeasurables, and other contemplative practices. The real practice is acting more compassionately out in the world.

We can expand our hearts over time by mindfully stretching our capacity to be generous, kind and caring as opportunities to help others present themselves. We can also practice extending compassion to ourselves and receiving compassion from others.

The research says compassion is contagious, as is the resulting happiness. As we experience real benefit from acting more kindly in the world, a positive feedback loop is generated in which we feel more resourced, more capable of helping others, and increasingly more satisfied with our lives.

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When we intentionally develop positive qualities, we’re building a certain spiritual force, a sense of energy for good in our lives. If we think about negativity as weakening us and depleting our source of power, the accumulation of positive actions carried out through our body, speech, and mind enriches us and fills us up with spiritual force. And all good things come from that.

In Buddhism, we call this the accumulation of merit. Not in terms of wearing a merit badge—it’s not something we need to be showing off. It’s something that accumulates as a quiet force for good in us. It gives us an ability to be strong in a very deep way so that we can face all forms of adversity with strength and with a positive attitude.

We might think about it as a kind of a credit system where we’re building a big savings account. The thing is, if we only think of ourselves, we’re actually depleting our merit, spending from our savings account all the time. If we think of others, if we offer it to others, merit becomes a source of spiritual power and spiritual force. As we accumulate it and give it away, we’re practicing generosity. It works because as we imagine that we are offering our own positive energy for the benefit of all beings, this very intention accumulates merit and recycles it back so it can never be depleted. By giving it away, it is always growing.

Being able to make wishes and extend them out to all beings is a very quiet, deep force within us for good. After all, we’re not separate from other beings. Through our practice we realize we’re all connected; our accumulation of merit doesn’t exclude us. And it’s not exclusive to us. It’s inclusive of all of us.

Then there’s the accumulation of wisdom. The accumulation of wisdom in Buddhism is a little bit different from the accumulation of merit because it’s actually based on selflessness. What do we mean by that? Self, our idea of a self, is largely an unexamined and vague concept. It’s something we just take for granted: I have this body, I have a name, I have a history, and that’s me. But if, in meditation, we try to see clearly what’s what and look at the basis for this idea of a self, we see that nothing substantial can be found. There’s just some sensation here, a feeling there, a perception here. All of these things that the concept of a self is based on are constantly changing.

Take the body, for instance. You know, this body is changing all the time. Our ideas about it are changing all the time. The perceptions we have are changing constantly. We can’t name anything that our idea of a self is based on that isn’t in constant change, constant movement. How can we identify a self if that self is always changing? Sure, me, myself, and I are useful terms. Distinguishing between self and others and naming things can help clarify a conversation. But when it comes to looking at what’s true, self is just a concept—a changing concept that isn’t reliable or stable.

Wisdom is seeing clearly how things truly are. To see clearly, we need to examine all the concepts we hold onto. When a concept arises in the mind, we have to look behind the concept and investigate: What is this label referring to? What is the actual, true substance behind it? When we look behind that label, we won’t see anything that isn’t changing. There is appearance, and appearance is constantly changing. Wisdom is recognizing and understanding that there is no permanent, unchanging existence. It doesn’t mean you throw away your intellect and all the labels. You don’t—they’re convenient—but they’re not what you thought they were; they don’t have the substance that you’ve given them.

The accumulation of wisdom is holding this recognition in the background and seeing everything through that insubstantial lens. Recognizing it now, keeping it in your mind now, and experiencing through that lens right now. And wisdom confirms the importance of accumulating merit through positive actions and positive conduct; it drives home why merit is so important.

Take, for example, what happens when we grasp and obsess about some story with somebody that was hurtful to us, some words or actions that were painful. If we really look through the lens of wisdom, there’s no substance to the story; it was just a momentary word, a momentary action. We’ve been giving it so much power, so much weight—and that person’s mind has probably changed by now. Just as our mind and our perceptions are constantly changing, everybody else’s minds are too! In this example, we see that we’ve been ascribing to situations weight and permanence that they simply don’t have.

In fact, when we have cultivated the lens of wisdom, we can let go of anything that inhibits our accumulation of merit because we recognize that nothing has the substance we’ve been giving it. In this light, accumulating merit and wisdom is the absolute best approach for making progress on the spiritual path and developing spiritual realization.

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When we’re brand new to meditation, it helps to have a guide. A meditation teacher can provide us with the foundation we need to get started with our practice. But even after learning how to meditate, we can only go so far on our own. To walk the entirety of the path, we need a teacher to lead the way. Registering for free meditation lessons online is just the beginning.

A meditation teacher guides us in our practice, training us in ethics, meditation and wisdom. The teacher may also be a spiritual friend, serving as a living, breathing example of what’s possible when we walk a spiritual path. The teacher is also a mirror, echoing back to us our own state of mind, and ultimately, reflecting our true nature.

But in our current, untrained state of mind, how do we choose a meditation teacher? To find a meditation instructor, it helps to apply the principles of mindfulness and awareness as best as we can. The process necessitates becoming aware of ourselves and our motivations, the teacher and their potential motivations, and the relationship between the two.

Choosing A Meditation Teacher

Whether we’re looking for online meditation classes for beginners, buddhist meditation classes, or any free meditation courses, we’ll reap the greatest benefit if we take great care in selecting our instructor.

The best online mindfulness course will not only teach you how to meditate, but will guide you through a complete mindfulness journey. Thus, we want to find a teacher and a program that can accompany us well down the road, and not just as we take our first steps.

Choosing a meditation teacher is a process that involves understanding where we are, and where we want to go. The process begins by being open, staying curious, and asking the right questions.

6 Questions To Ask A Meditation Teacher

Contemplating the following questions can help shine light on whether or not a teacher is right for you. As you read through them, remain aware of changing sensation in the body. The body often has wisdom to share which the mind hasn’t yet fully cognized.

• Does this person have the knowledge I need?

It’s not easy to discern whether a meditation teacher has the knowledge you seek. Especially, if you’re unsure what you’re looking for. Evidence that a teacher has received sufficient training is not only found on their resume, but felt and seen by the usefulness of the information they’ve already shared with you and their willingness to answer questions.

• Are they part of an authentic lineage?

For those seeking a Buddhist meditation teacher, it can be helpful to learn about the different types of Buddhist meditation. Ask your teacher who their teacher was and where they got their training. If you plan to formally take refuge in the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, you might ask if this person can offer vows or initiations.

• Do other teachers recognize them?

The best meditation instructors are generally part of a community of others who share mutual respect and recognition. Your teacher does not have to be internationally well-known, but it is a good sign if they are part of a greater mindfulness and meditation community, and seem known and well-liked by their peers.

• Are they inspiring?

The most inspiring teachers are those who practice what they preach. A teacher should not only understand virtue conceptually, but should embody qualities such as patience and generosity. Note how you feel in your teacher’s presence and observe their interactions with others too.

• Are they compassionate?

Classically, the process of vetting a teacher would include assessing their bodhicitta. Put simply, does the teacher demonstrate compassion and kindness toward others? Regardless of the lineage or meditation style you’re interested in, the primary teaching of any authentic path is love.

• What are their other students like?

What someone teaches is evidenced not only by their words, but by the behavior of their students. While individuals behave differently based on personality, groups generally take on the characteristics of their leader. Note how you feel in the presence of your teacher’s other students.

Finding a Meditation Teacher

Once you’ve found a meditation teacher, your agency and your practice remains your own. Continually evaluate the relationship you have with your teacher, what attracts you to them, and what might be a potential red flag.

When we don’t yet feel whole, we may be attracted to those who embody the qualities we wish we had. But in our untrained state, we are confused about what we think we need. For example, we may be attracted to a teacher’s popularity, good looks, charm or financial success, mistakenly thinking this is where happiness comes from. If we’re learning an authentic practice, we may notice things anew as we learn, grow and heal.

Trusting in a teacher should never take the place of trusting in ourselves. Throughout the teacher and student relationship, we too have a responsibility to maintain boundaries and speak up when we experience or witness harmful behavior. Although the teacher is an essential companion on our journey, the real guide is within.

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