When you are chanting for a goal, are you chanting with great intensity trying to force it to happen? Or are you chanting with faith that once you set the goal the universe will provide the path to achieving it? What does Trying to Force a Goal Look Like? When a person tries to force […]
Archive | Buddhism In Daily Life
Are You chanting While Focusing on Obstacles or the End goal?
When chanting for a goal, we often focus on the obstacles to reaching it. This happens because we are worried about them, or they seem overwhelming. Unfortunately, when we chant while focusing on the obstacles, we are inadvertently using the law of cause and effect to produce what we don’t want. Set the Seed Cause […]
4 Steps to Finding Your Life Path
When we are young we often think that we are not as good as other people because of inclinations or characteristics that make us different. Those may well be the very characteristics that make you unique, the indicators of a contribution you can make, which will be different from anyone else. There is a discussion […]
What Are You Really Doing when You Chant for a Goal?
The immediate answer would be that we want to achieve this or that specific goal. But looking at the immediate goal is only is a limited, short term view. Long term, as we win over one goal and then another, we are inconspicuously forging the characteristics and life state of a Buddha. “The benefit we […]
Sweep Pessimism Out the door
Sweeping pessimism out the door is an important skill to learn. When we set a goal, chant about it, then follow through with the action steps to accomplish it we often have to deal with pessimistic thinking. It can hamper us, setting up a headwind against the forward direction we want to take. If you’re […]
5 Steps to Develop Inner Stability
You can learn how to navigate agitated feelings, when blindsided by life, to maintain stability in the face of shocks. Many people feel flung about by their feelings when confronting an obstacle. Usually they are talking about despair, suffering, anxiety and depression. These can take over when faced with an obstacle that seems impossible to […]
Why is My Goal Taking so Long? (2)
Sometimes we may have set a goal which might limit us, but we don’t know that. While we keep our eye on our initial goal that seems to take forever, our lives might be growing in ways we would never have imagined. But this growth is not obvious; it happens out of sight. The greatness […]
How to Unlock Your Mental Limits
When we run up against a mental limit we think we are going to do something, and then we don’t do it. We resist moving forward, and abandon our goal or project. My Experience With Mental Limits I came up against my mental boundaries in the gym, where at seventy one I challenged myself to […]
Chanting But Doubting Results? Problem or Opportunity
When confronting a difficult obstacle, we may have doubts that we can ever overcome it. “Can I really overcome this situation using this practice?” we ask ourselves. This fog of illusion results in our inability to see our unlimited potential. Doubts about our unlimited potential can translate into doubts about the practice. We can’t see […]
4 Steps to Establish A Consistent Practice When Feeling Breathless
Are you in the position of putting everything else in life before your practice? We’re trained to do that in our culture. We are taught to plan and strategize and talk over things with our friends. When someone starts to chant they are taught to chant first when dealing with an issue before doing anything […]