thankfulness for life
Environmental activist and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy writes in her Shambhala Sun article Gratitude: Where Healing the Earth Begins: There is so much to be done, and the time is so short. We can proceed, of course, out of grim and angry desperation. But the tasks proceed more easily and productively with a measure of […]
Low-Pressure Networking Requests
Ben Casnocha writes about low-pressure requests for introductions: A friend asked me via email if I’d be open to introducing him to another busy friend of mine. He then wrote: If you are willing, and feel you could recommend a meeting with sincerity, then I’d be most grateful for an introduction. And if you have […]
How to Be Mindful With Your In-Laws
American psychologist Tara Brach, a prominent exponent of Buddhist meditation and author of Radical Acceptance, proposes mindfulness habits for handling in-laws in the New York Times column Meditation for Real Life column: Set the intention to be accepting, patient and appreciative with your in-laws. Know that some situations might make you emotionally reactive. When these […]
Impermanent Nature of All Our Feelings
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari writes in his international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, According to Buddhism, the root of suffering is neither the feeling of pain nor of sadness nor even of meaninglessness. Rather, the real root of suffering is this never-ending and pointless pursuit of ephemeral feelings, which causes us to […]
Gadgets, Luxuries, and The Treadmill of Life
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari writes in his international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally […]
Psychological Tests to Measure Intelligence
William Stern in his introduction to The Psychological Methods of Testing Intelligence (1914): The objection is often made that the problem of intellectual diagnosis can in no way be successfully dealt with until we have exact knowledge of the general nature of intelligence itself. But this objection does not seem to me pertinent….We measure electro-motive […]
Algeria Spurred Albert Camus’s Writing
Born in Mondovi, Algeria, Nobel laureate Albert Camus’s background in working-class European settings and his personal familiarity with human suffering provided the setting for many of his works. His father was killed in World War I and his deaf mother worked as a housecleaner to raise her family in a tiny apartment. In his first […]
The Hard Take-offs and Landings of Office Work
Swiss-born British author and philosopher Alain de Botton writes in The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work: The challenge lies in knowing how to bring this sort of day to a close. His mind has been wound to a pitch of concentration by the interactions of the office. Now there are only silence and the flashing […]
We All Want Our Lives to Have Meaning
Christina Feldman writes about putting an end to the endless pursuit of becoming someone in her Tricycle (Fall 2016) article Doing, Being, and the Great In-Between: In the Buddha’s teaching, desire is a very interesting word. In fact, it’s not one word alone; there are a number of words in Pali that might be translated […]
When Good Impressions Prevail, Your Character Becomes Good
As you think, so shall you be. Thus writes Swami Vivekananda in Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action: If good impressions prevail, the character becomes good; if bad, it becomes bad. If a man continuously hears bad words, thinks bad thoughts, does bad actions, his mind will be full of bad impressions; and they will […]