If New Years resolutions are something youve struggled with, you’re in good company. At the beginning of a new year, many of us feel pressure to fix ourselves or do better. Pema Chödrön has a beautiful quote where she talks about self-improvement as a ... Read more
A Path to Freedom
Many of us want to move through life with greater ease and resilience, yet it can feel challenging—especially in a world full of uncertainty. Even if you’ve tried meditation or mindfulness, lasting peace can still feel elusive. The Buddha’s Four Noble T... Read more
Healing the Mind through Goodwill
If you feel stressed, mentally exhausted, or caught in patterns of self-criticism, you’re not alone. Many people come to meditation hoping to feel calmer or more grounded, only to find that their minds feel just as busy—sometimes even harsher—when they ... Read more
Practicing the Buddha’s Teachings in Daily Life
Do you ever feel stuck in the same patterns of stress, dissatisfaction, or distraction, no matter how hard you try to change? Many of us do, and in this post, we’ll explore how the Buddha’s teachings offer practical tools to notice what’s happening in y... Read more
Starting Where We Are
“…there is not only overwhelm – there is also hope, and real access to clarity and a deeper sense of calm right in the midst of it all”
How are we to navigate all the noise and overwhelm of our world?
InsightLA teacher Paloma Cain and Ron Ames share t... Read more
Clearing the Heart for the New Year
Something I like to do as we head into the end of a year is spend some time in reflection. We do this practice of meditation as a spiritual path, developing our hearts and minds to try to be good people in the world. Cultivating the mind is important be... Read more
Cultivating Calm During the Holidays
One of my favorite teachers, Larry Yang, once talked about mindfulness by comparing the mind and body to a snow globe. In everyday life, he said, the activities of the mind are like the little filaments inside it. Whatever is occurring in our lives pull... Read more
Turning Toward the Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMkEDMuwQ1Q
With the coming of the winter solstice, it’s a natural time—an invitation—to quiet the mind and tend the heart. We live in a culture where the speed and the way life is organized can almost be described as th... Read more
Friendship as the Path
For a long time before I started practicing, I thought of Buddhism as something solitary—almost a practice of isolation. I imagined Buddhist practice as something you do alone in a cave: you meditate, you withdraw. It didn’t feel like it had anything to... Read more
The Happiness of Generosity
Dear Sangha,
The Buddha called dana—generosity—the first perfection of the heart and the beginning of the path. He taught that when we give with a joyful mind, free of expectation, something extraordinary happens:
We loosen the grip of greed and f... Read more