Become An Everyday Buddhist

Don't let yourself get so worn down that a sad folk song like John Prine's tale of the Midwest housewife describes your Tuesday better than you'd like. You don't need a poster of an old rodeo. You already have something to hold onto — the Three Jewels.

Aspiration, when grounded in the Dharma, becomes a source of transformation. It helps us face life’s challenges with resilience. It turns our suffering into understanding, our mistakes into insight. It encourages us to turn ourselves upward, to expand, to grow—not because we are trying to be someone else, but because the light of the Dharma calls us to become more fully ourselves.

It is actually very easy to create habits. It only requires sustained, repetitive behavior. For both good and bad habits, the mechanism is the same: repetition. This process is known as Neuroplasticity. We create new neural pathways in our minds as we repeat behaviors, and each time it becomes easier to travel down those same pathways. Luckily, this is simply how the brain works. It requires no willpower or special training.

The easy path is not for the lazy. You’ve probably noticed how much easier it is to do something you really want to do compared to what you think you should do. Faith is like desire, and when you want something, you’re motivated to work for it.

What if the thing blocking your spiritual growth... is trying too hard? Janet Anwyl explores why faith feels effortless — and why getting there is anything but.

Incense is not simply something burned during rituals. It carries a long cultural, artistic, and spiritual history. This article invites you to appreciate the history and varieties of kō, even its surprising use in contemporary cooking, before turning to Shinran Shōnin’s beautiful teaching of the “fragrance of Nembutsu.”