Eradicating Bad Habits (Click image to see video)

Learning to practice 

as awakened beings do. 

At some point in our practice of Buddhism, we will want to work on developing our bodhi mind, the mind of understanding and compassion.

How?

We could practice the bodhisattvas’ six paramitas of giving, morality, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and prajna wisdom.

Wow! Where would we even begin?

An excellent place is the sutras and their commentaries. Or we could study the more recent, and often easier to understand, works of Buddhist masters. Prefer even more modest sources? We could observe and then emulate those who already practice the paramitas.

Alternatively, we could come at this from the opposite direction and observe those who are behaving contrary to the paramitas. While these bad examples won’t show us what to do, they can teach us what not to do.

And they can inspire us to work much harder as they show us the kind of person we could become when we fail to practice.

Sarcasm (Click image to see video)

When hearing of someone’s ill health, 

I need to be wary of pride 

in my good health. 

We’ve just heard that someone we know is ill. An old superstition warns us to “knock wood,” “touch iron” or something similar to avoid tempting fate and finding ourselves in like circumstances. We don’t really believe the superstition; it’s just a saying we grew up hearing. But as the saying whips through our mind, we need to watch what comes next.

Is it gratitude for our good fortune?

Recognition that our mental and physical well-being resulted from our having given fearlessness?

Are we making a note of the wisdom in deepening our practice of such giving?

Or are we, instead, commending ourselves, attributing our good health to our nutritious diet, regular exercise program, or healthy lifestyle. The moment we slip into congratulating ourselves, we heedlessly walk away from safely dwelling in gratitude and land in the enemy camp of arrogance.

Not where we want to be.