Top Highlights

• Every single thing in the natural world occurs in the same way. When certain factors come together in certain ways, certain things happen. When those factors change, those things dissipate and other things happen. There is no intrinsic identity in anything. There are only the labels we decide upon to refer to things: clouds, raindrops, puddles. All...
• the Buddha accepted as a fundamental truth that pain is an inevitable and inescapable component of the human condition, and that each of us must face this in the intimacy of our own experience.
• It is radically empowering to say that suffering is caused by human maladaptation to the way things are, and that it can thus be eliminated by a psychological adjustment — by evolving our understanding and learning to respond differently.
• What if the nirvana experienced by the Buddha in Bodhgaya turns out to be something considerably less magnificent than that of later mythic tradition, yet at the same time, by virtue of it being actually attainable by ordinary folk, something of unparalleled value?
• As a psychological transformation the Buddha spoke of learning how to be deeply happy, right here and now, no matter what circumstances we are facing. Even the existential challenges of our own impending illness, aging, and death can be encompassed with a wisdom that acknowledges all things change, accepts there is no essence underlying it all, and...