There's a profound and miraculous mystery right under our noses: This instant of now has no duration at all, yet somehow it contains all the causes from the past that are creating the future. Everything arising to become this moment vanishes beneath our feet as the next moment wells up....

Where Does It Hurt?
The Practice:
Recognize suffering in others.
Why?

We're usually aware of our own suffering, which -- broadly defined -- includes the whole range of physical and mental discomfort, from mild headache or anxiety to the agony of bone cancer or the anguish of...

What could you offer?
The Practice:
Make the offering.
Why?

One of the strangest and most meaningful experiences of my life occurred when I going through Rolfing (10 brilliant sessions of deep-tissue bodywork) in my early 20s. The fifth session works on the stomach...

Are you hard on yourself?
The Practice:
Don't beat up yourself.
Why?

The previous JOT -- admit fault and move on -- was about our relationship with other people. This JOT applies the same practice to ourselves.

Most people know their less-than-wonderful qualities, such as...

What gets you stuck?
The Practice:
Admit fault and move on.
Why?

Have you ever watched two people quarrel or otherwise be stuck in a conflict with each other? Usually, if either or both of them simply acknowledged one or more things, that would end the fight.

Take a breath right now, and notice how abundant the air is, full of life-giving oxygen offered freely by trees and other green growing things. You can't see air, but it's always available for you.

Love is a lot like the air. It may be hard to see -- but...

In middle school, I thought it would be cool to play a musical instrument, and picked the clarinet. My wise parents rented one rather than buying it, and I started practicing. (In the garage because it sounded pretty screechy.) After a week or two of doing scales, I got bored...

Who are you, deep down?
The Practice:
Know you're a good person.
Why?

For many of us, perhaps the hardest thing of all is to believe that "I am a good person." We can climb mountains, work hard, acquire many skills, act ethically, but truly feel...

Life is full of tradeoffs between benefits and costs.

Sometimes, the benefits are worth the costs. For example, the rewards of going for a run -- getting out in fresh air, improving health, etc. -- are, for me at least, worth the costs of losing half an hour of...

What do their faces say to you?
The Practice:
Receive faces.
Why?

As our ancestors evolved over millions of years in small bands, continually interacting and working with each other, it was vitally important to communicate in hundreds of ways each day. They shared information about external...

What's in your heart to say?
The Practice:
Speak truly.
Why?

It's been said that the most powerful tool for physical health is a fork (or spoon), since the choices you make with it determine the good or bad things you put into your body.

In the...

Who do you argue with?
The Practice:
Don't quarrel.
Why?

It's one thing to stick up for yourself and others. But it's a different matter to get caught up in wrangles, contentiousness, squabbles... in a word, quarrels.

Similarly, it's one thing to disagree with someone, even...

I once heard a Native American teaching story in which an elder, a grandmother, was asked what she had done to become so happy, so wise, so loved and respected. She replied: "It's because I know that there are two wolves in my heart, a wolf of love and a...

I was enthralled by Dr. Taylor's talk when I first saw it, and have thought about it many times since. From the vantage point today of several more years of dramatic growth in neuroscientific knowledge, I'd like to offer three reflections.

Your brain is a precious gift

When Dr. Taylor's...

What's your own role?
The Practice:
See your part.
Why?

In situations or relationships with any kind of difficulty -- tension, feeling hurt, conflicts, mismatches of want, the usual crud -- it's natural to focus on what others have done that's problematic.

This could be useful for...

On the path of life, most of us are hauling way too much weight.

What's in your own backpack? If you're like most of us, you've got too many items on each day's to-do list and too much stuff in the closet. Too many entanglements with other people. And too...

What are you saying?
The Practice:
Speak wisely.
Why?

"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

Ah, not really.

Often it's words -- and the tone that comes with them -- that actually do the most damage. Just think back on...

Forgiveness is a tricky topic.

First, it has two distinct meanings:

• To give up resentment or anger


• To pardon an offense; to stop seeking punishment or recompense

Here, I am going to focus on the first meaning, which is broad enough to include situations where you have not...

I recently did a meditation retreat (at Spirit Rock, a wonderful place, including for workshops). One evening as we walked out of the hall after the last sit, I was feeling rattled and discombobulated. (One of the benefits of a retreat -- though it...

As a rock climber and a parent, I know some physical kinds of clinging are good -- like to small holds or small hands!

But clinging as a psychological state has a feeling of tension in it, and drivenness, insistence, obsession, or compulsion. As experiences flow through the mind --...