Siddhearta's Essence of 2019.

2019 has been a bit of a bridge year for me. I completed a lot of projects that I have been working on for the past few years and find myself in a new territory, a vast unexplored world with infinite possibility. Even now as I write this I acknowledge that I don't know what comes next. It's the end of the decade, and a wonderful ten years it has been.

To think that ten years ago, I didn't think of myself as a teacher, didn't write, hadn't done any ten day or longer retreats. I had just gotten married, couldn't have imagined how much I enjoy being a father, and had never conceived leading a Buddhist non-profit. What world awaits me in the next ten years?

I appreciate your support and encouragement over this past year. Your questions, curiosity and insight continue to inspire and motivate me. Thank you for your commitment to your own practice and having the courage to carry it into your daily life in the form of generosity, kindness and compassion.

Here are some of this years highlights. I hope you'll find one or two that connect with your own practice and share them with others. 

Understanding what is beyond expression.

Let go.

Give yourself the gift of your practice.

Dzogchen view and practice.

Forging the path ahead.

How does wisdom lead to love?

Mirror of the mind.

Unborn and unceasing.

Conception of identity

3 marks of existence.

Changing the human predicament.

Each and every thing.

Lifting each other up.

A first glimpse at the ground of being.

Heal yourself before healing others.

Imminent revelation.

Student-teacher relationship.

The ground of generosity.

I wish you all a wonderful New Year!
May you enjoy health and a peaceful mind!
May you focus on your practice,
generously share love and kindness,
and may you accomplish the aims of yourself and others!

Siddhearta's Essence of 2017.

2017 was a very challenging year for most of us. There has been a lot of baseline anxiety, tension and frustration with our outer world and the perceived trajectory that we are all on. I really decided to focus a lot of my time and energy to meditation and teaching various courses for Younge Drodul Ling that were practice focused and useful. During much of the past six months, my writing has been mixed with my contemplation for these courses, which I have organized as a two part series on Bringing the Mind to Rest. These are in no way complete or comprehensive, but have been useful for me as I have been teaching those courses to other students. I hope you will enjoy reading through them on your own time.

Bringing the Mind to Rest series and other selected works.

I appreciate all of your support over this past year. I know it is easy to get sucked into the media these days, so thank you for choosing to take a moment to spend your time with me, listening to me, sitting with me, and hopefully using a tiny bit here and there to connect back to your own life and practice. Our practice is most important during times of change and uncertainty, continue to nurture and use it.

Here is an overview of the top posts from 2017, in no particular order.

Endless iterations. 
Reverence. 
Feeling Stuck. 
Complexity, simplified.
Barchay. 
Buddha heart.
Lit up. 
Unpaid debt.
Dharma. 
Idolatry. 
Feeding concepts.
Born free.
Say yes.
Different emanations.
I hope. 
Honor.
Buddha eye. 

I wish you all a wonderful New Year!
May you enjoy health and a peaceful mind!
May you focus on your practice,
generously share love and kindness,
and may you accomplish the aims of yourself and others!

Siddhearta's Essence of 2016.

2016 was a great year (or a terrible one, if you choose to see it through the media lens).   

Writing this blog has been a challenge this year.  I wrote a lot this year for other projects and I would say that I shared more this year than ever before.  But what I share here is different.  It has a different tone.  It is often me speaking to me, sharing something that needs to be shared.  Most of what I share here doesn't come from me sitting down to write, it comes in a flurry, in a flash.  It slips in between the gaps, into my dreams or just comes from the heart.  It often feels more like catching than writing, and I need to do a better job of being open and listening so that I can catch those messages. 

Of course this is also why I write.  There is an element of revelation and liberation.  We see truth, but we also see hindrances and problems.  The practice is to carry both as the path, to use both so that we can eliminate our own obscurations and ignorance in order to awaken our hearts and minds.  

I appreciate your support and encouragement over this past year.  Thank you for your dedication to your own practice and having the courage to carry it into your daily life.

Here is an overview of some of the top posts in 2016, in no particular order.

This might be your chance.
Householder tradition. 
What do we leave for posterity?
Our biggest challenge. 
The slippery slope of self-compassion. 
The truth of suffering. 
Only so much room. 
A better version of yourself.
The path from here to there. 
First, tumult. 
Throw back the fish. 
Disconnected. 
Willing to go. 
Concealed. 
The world is deceitful.  
Unless.
Overwhelm challenges.   

I wish you all a great New Year!
May you enjoy health and a peaceful mind!
May you focus on your practice,
generously share love and kindness,
and may you accomplish the aims for yourself and others!

Siddhearta's Essence of 2015.

2015 was a year of formation. 

Many of the changes that have occurred over the past several years are starting to take take on stronger forms.  One of the best new shapes in my life has been my daughter, I enjoy spending our mornings together, learning from each other and playing.  I appreciate this brief moment in time that we get to do this, to share and influence each other, to watch each other grow. 

I haven't been as consistent writing this year due to many changes in my life, both personal and professional.  I thank you for supporting me, for taking a moment out of your day to share this space, to influence each other and to bring new form to our life. 

Thank you.

Here are some of this years highlights:
1.  A story of my teacher and appreciating those before you.
2.  What it means to be remarkable.
3.  I wrote about doing no harm and how to work with anger.
4.  How passionate amateurs become professionals.
5.  The experience of groundlessness and how to rest in movement.
6.  How teachers change us.
7.  Compassion and its activity.
8.  Karma and the influence of our choices.
9.  Questioning ourselves and our potential.
10.  The difficulty in starting a daily practice.
11.  5 faults to developing a stable practice.
12.  What a perfect day looks like.

I wish all of you a great year, a year of health and happiness.
May you find what you are looking for,
May you share generously,
May your kindness bring light to the world around you,
and may your determination accomplish not only your own aims, but the aims of others.

Happy New Year!

Siddhearta's Essence of 2014

2014 was a year of change for me.

My wife and I entered the year finalizing plans for a retreat cabin in the San Juan islands, hoping to bring to fruition our dream of having a place for people to spend time devoted to their practice in a quiet, peaceful setting.  Those plans were put on hold when we learned in January that we would be expecting our first baby.  Things have changed a lot since then. 

I got a new job.  We had a beautiful daughter.  And now we are moving.

It has been a challenging year to practice.  Even more challenging to write.  It has been a joy for me to be able to share my journey with you, to share a glimpse of my practice.  Thank you for supporting me and I look forward to what we share together in 2015.

Here is an overview of 2014.

1. Heartfelt Connection
2. How do you sit with irritation? 
3. A Meditation for the Dying.
4. How to tame a horse.
5. How long should I meditate?
6. "I don't know what to do."
7. Our Human Dilemma.
8. Doing work that matters.
9. How does a racoon satisfies it's thirst?
10. Lineage. 
11. What does fearlessness look like?
12. Beyond the surface.
13. Middle Way between extremes.
14. Letting sadness wash over me.
15. I am samsara.
16. Three hats.
17. Neurotic.
18. What do teachers teach?
19. Privilege.
20. Breakthrough.

I wish you all a happy new year,
a year of health and inner wealth!
May you focus on your practice,
generously share love and kindness,
and may you realize the simultaneous fulfillment
of your own and others aims!


 

You can't own Happiness.

Yet that is what we often try to do. 

Once we have it, we try to hold on, prevent it from slipping through our fingers.  But you can't own happiness, you can only be happy.

So rather than trying to hold onto something that is always fleeting, better to cultivate that which supports happiness.

Be mindful.
Appreciate simplicity.
Rest in openness.
Practice generosity.
Share love.
Lend a compassionate hand.
Respect others.  Everyone.
Look people in the eye.
Be fully present.

Here is to a happy New Year.

Siddhearta's Essence of 2013

2013 was a great year.

Writing for me is a practice of clarifying my intention and my actions.  It is a joy to be able to share it with all of you.  I am truly blessed to have so much support in my life and I thank you for supporting me on my path. 

This is Siddhearta's second year of existence, and it has started to take shape and move out of the randomness that is was in 2012.  I look forward to seeing how it continues to evolve and what shapes it assumes in 2014. 

To give you an overview of 2013, here are the top 15 posts ranked by pageviews.

1.  Perfecting Patience
2. A Fruitful Life
3. What do you stand for?
4. A Simple Vessel
5. The Code.
6. Wealth Distribution
7. Legacy
8. Is what you are doing meaningful?
9. The Battleground
10. Gods and Demons
11. Two Faced
12. Dig Deeper
13. Simplicity
14. Your Practice
15. The Lens

I wish all of you a great year, a year of health and happiness.
May you find what you are looking for,
May you share generously,
May your kindness bring light to the world around you,
and may your determination accomplish not only your own aims, but the aims of others.

Happy New Year!