It is our thinking that propels or forces us into further samsaric existence. As long as we get caught up in our own thinking, samsara doesn't stop. [But] any thought is an empty thought, in that it has no concrete substance to it whatsoever. ― Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (in As It Is: Vol. 1)

Silence is the language of God―all else is poor translation. ― (Attributed to) Rumi

Gratitude to Bhikkhu Bodhi for responding to my piece: “Is the Insight Tradition Complicit in Genocide?” I have watched him be a tireless advocate, not only for Palestinians, but for pretty much all people facing overwhelming suffering. He’s a real one. 🙏

Gate gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha The vow creating a path that isn't a path for beings who aren't beings. — Red Pine

"If you can’t stand up for what’s good and right, and you’re too scared, you need to pass on the baton. Pass the torch. Put down the Dharma-teacher role and let other people who are ready and willing take it up."

I am extremely skeptical that anything we are building now is even close to SuperIntelligence. That's not the issue as this tech gets shoved down our throats. The real problem facing us is not getting AI “right” but getting human’s wrong. www.everymansuniverse.com/p/the-real-d...

The wealthy have stolen so much wealth and rigged the system so far that our economy is on the verge of collapse. They’re pushing fascism and dismantling democracy to get at what little remains. We don’t have to live like this. We deserve better. jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-game-t...

For a word to be spoken, there must be silence. Before, and after.

Meditation begins now, right here. It can't begin someplace else or at some other time.... Nobody can bring awareness to your life but you. ― Steve Hagen (in Meditation Now or Never)

Leave your attention free of dualistic action, don’t affirm or deny, but remain in uncontrived effortlessness, don’t accept or reject.The awakened state is to dwell undistractedly in that! ~ Guru Rinpoche

Such is the Buddhist goal: to experience that which cannot die because it was never born. — David Loy (in Lack & Transcendence)

This is interesting but comes with a big caveat: most (all?) of the data on which the cited study is based are apparently from Western participants. It's therefore a stretch to say that the study captures "human brain development." Context and nuance matter. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Data centers are important for many reasons BUT consumers should NOT have to pay higher bills to facilitate the huge amounts of electricity they eat up. The richest companies on the planet are building these centers and they should bear the costs — not you.

The essence is like the original sun shining: naturally radiant and unformed. ~ Tulku Urgyen

"[I]n a world shaped by conflict and fear, perhaps no vow, no matter how sacred, is entirely safe from the pull of politics." Yes, when religion is used as an instrument for attaining power and influence, bigotry and ill-will inevitably follow. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

When the thought "I'm losing my mind" (or any other thought) bubbles up, and I go look for that in which the thought supposedly appears ("the mind"), I invariably come up empty. It's comforting to know that a mind that cannot be found cannot be lost.

A machine is more blameless, more sinless even than any animal. It has no intentions whatsoever but our own.

What good is power when you're too wise to use it?

I could die at any moment. Nothing I'm worried about now will matter to me then. Better learn to love before I disappear.

Forget the known, but remember that you are the knower. Don’t be all the time immersed in your experiences. Remember that you are beyond the experiencer ever unborn and deathless. In remembering it, the quality of pure knowledge will emerge, the light of unconditional awareness.

At the core, below any superficial language, beneath any gender, race, color, or creed...we are all the same.... When you go to sleep, you're actually going to meet me―and every other sentient being on this planet―at this deepest possible level. ― Andrew Holecek (in Dream Yoga)

Given that governments across the world are now being taken over by the rich and powerful, not because of inherent aptitude or interest in the public good but because of blatant self-interest and self-dealing, sortition (the appointment of public officials by lottery) looks increasingly attractive.

If one can abandon the view of an independent and fixed self, one can certainly abandon ideologies that necessitate the suffering of others.

A personal contemplative practice, no matter how intense or deep, is ever-evolving and serendipitous—even an apparent plateau offers new views and possible new directions.

Mind is a forerunner of all actions. If a person speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows them like the cart that follows the ox. If a person speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows them like a never-departing shadow. ―The Dhammapada

Birth and death are fully intertwined. One begets the other.

Sun in an Empty Room - 1963 https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/40480

The fact that according to the Big Bang Theory, all matter of the known universe was once contained in an infinitely small space becomes somewhat less mind-boggling when one becomes familiar with the insight from modern physics that matter is mostly (entirely?) empty space.

We broke the world to make it whole...

“The growing consumption of ultra-processed foods is reshaping diets worldwide, displacing fresh and minimally processed foods and meals” The industrialization of agriculture (and food preparation) is wreaking untold damage to the environment and human health. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

[A] simplified, rudimentary awareness that is stripped of all extraneous detail...is grounded in a living flow of the present... marked by a profound sense of reality. You know that this is absolutely real, more real than anything you have ever experienced. ―Bhante G (Mindfulness in Plain English).

The Epstein scandal is a symptom of a larger disease The capture and corruption of American politics and institutions of power has created a criminal, abusive, and degenerate class of elites who believe they are untouchable and don’t care who they hurt jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/its-rotten...

The moment of recognizing mind essence is the instant that impure experience, the habit of fixating on all things as solid reality, disperses into basic space. What is left is pure experience, pure phenomena. ― Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (in As It Is: Vol. 1)

"The disappearance of local knowledge is not a trivial loss. It is a disruption to the larger web of understanding that sustains both human and ecological wellbeing." www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

"A truly novel political movement from outside the corporate duopoly is needed" Yes. The late 70s/80s in Europe saw the Green movement form in response to the impending ecological crisis. Because of its electoral system (and utilitarian leanings), the U.S. has so far not seen a comparable movement.

With respect to ... appearances, [those who know the truth] think that the conditioned and unconditioned, ... the occurrence of conceptualization, and the phenomenal appearance of conditioned phenomena exist in the way magical illusions do. — Unravelling the Intent (Saṃdhi­nirmocana Sūtra)

My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.

[A]s long as this unconfined mind has not been purified of karma, it appears in various ways when meeting with...different types of objects.... [Y]ou must gain...certainty in the fact that the various types of perception are mind. ― Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (in Clarifying the Natural State)

"What we’re seeing is a closed doom loop underpinned by…well, what exactly?" Good old-fashioned greed.

The misconception which has haunted philosophic literature throughout the centuries is the notion of "independent existence." There is no such mode of existence; every entity is to be understood in terms of the way it is interwoven with the rest of the universe. ― Alfred North Whitehead

“[Bodhisattvas] themselves abstain from killing, encourage others to abstain from killing, praise abstention from killing, and when others abstain from killing give them praise and approval." ~The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines~

Hey lawyers out there- what do you think?

Absolutely correct. So much of the discourse around restoring trust in the institutions is focused on decorum and civility theater. But why would anyone trust the institutions if, after the horror show that we are suffering through, they yet again fail to impose some measure of real accountability?

Bird Cloud, Lyonel Feininger 1926

All [phenomena] are defined by emptiness [infinite interconnectedness], not by birth or destruction, purity or defilement, completeness or deficiency. ― The Heart Sutra (transl. Red Pine)

The ultimate truth transcends all kinds of notions, including notions of being and nonbeing, birth and death, coming and going. If you don’t let go of these notions, you can never touch the ultimate. ― Thich Nhat Hanh

"Everything becomes commonplace by explanation." Always very useful to bear in mind when engaging in contemplative practice—when something deeply astonishing is experienced/revealed, the analytical intellect often makes a real hash of it.

The X5.1 CME has impacted Earth with a strength of around 37 nT. This is a strong impact, but the Bz remains positive. It is possible we see the Bz turn south, so don't get upset about this. Conditions can quickly pivot during events, especially in the beginning of a CME passage.

Saw a snake stretched out on a sunlit path while out running. It was quite something to briefly behold the exquisitely chiselled head and beautiful banding pattern, only to see it dissolve into a long shiny twig a moment later. The mind is a marvellous magician (and a sneaky one at that).

Buddhism in a nutshell.