True spiritual paths lead to true cessations of suffering and complete peace of mind. Siddhārtha Gautama became the Buddha, the awakened one. His first teachings were the Four Noble Truths. The first noble truth in Buddhism acknowledges the fundamental reality of suffering or unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) in human existence. It’s important to note that the term…

A practical guide to cessation practices that make the mind more peaceful and life more joyful. The young prince, Siddhārtha Gautama, grew up in opulence, but he found that he was not happy. His pleasures were fleeting, and he came to believe he would never be truly happy, enjoying a life free from the many…

Rejoicing in the happiness and success of others and transforming jealousy into a feeling of joy and connectedness. In the Buddha’s Third Noble Truth, he taught that true cessation of human suffering exists. The suffering of anger ceases with the practice of patient acceptance. The suffering of attachment ceases by meditating on impermanence. The suffering…

Understanding the nature of selfish desire, craving, and attachment is fundamental to discovering relief from suffering. Ignorance is Bliss? Cypher in the movie The Matrix, decided it was preferable to live a life of illusion than endure the harsh truths of reality. The matrix had pleasures, and people could delude themselves into believing they are…

The Buddha’s encounters with suffering and his quest to understand and alleviate it, leading to the foundational Buddhist teachings on the universal nature of suffering (dukkha). The Traditional Story of the Buddha When a prince named Siddhārtha Gautama was born, the mystic seers of the time told the royal family that Siddhārtha would either become…

A summary of the initial scope with links to detailed explanations of the five meditations. The Initial Scope, Intermediate Scope, and Great Scope of Lamrim When people are very young, they learn to crawl; later, they learn to walk; finally, they learn to run. Each skill builds on the previous one. Similarly, the scopes of…

Samsara refers to the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, characterized by suffering, impermanence, and the perpetual cycle of existence. In nature, nearly every process we observe exists in a cycle. It begins, grows, peaks, fades, and ends, most often repeating over and over again. Celestial bodies, like stars, have a life cycle. When they…