Category: Updated Resources

Christiane Wolf provides a good introduction to appreciative joy or mudita. She also discusses some of the obstacles that can arise when we try to practice it. You can find her article here: How to Multiply Joy in Your Life The University of Nebraska has a website for their employees on fostering well-being that includes… Continue reading

Sharon Salzberg explores compassion and compares it to several other ways of relating to suffering, both suffering in the world and our own suffering. Those include anger, fear and grief among others. She emphasizes that compassion is a practice that reminds us of our intention to respond with kindness, compassion, and wisdom in the presence… Continue reading

Bodhipaksa has a good article on self-compassion that includes several approaches we can include in our practice of self-compassion. As his title and the quote above suggests, he has found self-compassion practice to be one of the most important practices he’s encountered in his long history of meditation practice. You can find his article here:… Continue reading

Allyson Pimental has a good description of compassion and how it differs from sympathy and empathy, using a tale from the Buddha’s time about a woman who loses her only child, as well as personal experiences from her life. You can find her article here: Hands of Compassion Jack Kornfield describes self-compassion in a short… Continue reading

Gil Fronsdal’s book “The Issue at Hand” has a couple of chapters on metta. One describes the qualities of metta, and the second is a brief introduction to metta practice in meditation. You can find those chapters here: The Issue at Hand Chapter 21:Metta And here: The Issue at Hand Chapter 22: Loving-Kindness Meditation Mark… Continue reading

Lion’s Roar has a page on their website that provides introductory information on metta and links to a number of more detailed articles and guided meditations on that topic. You can find their article here: Loving-Kindness Joanna Hardy discusses metta and the way you can practice it in meditation and in daily life. She also… Continue reading

Gil Fronsdal provides an excellent introduction to the four positive qualities of the heart known as the Brahmaviharas. The four qualities, lovingkindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity are also known as the four immeasurables, because they can be extended to all beings without measure. The article includes a brief discussion of the use of meditation… Continue reading

Ajahn Sucitto takes a deep look at the practice of wise concentration (samadhi) and presents an approach to it that is much different than we might anticipate. Rather than a grim focus on forcing our minds to concentrate on the breath, he presents it as an embodied practice of joy and awareness. You can find… Continue reading

Phillip Moffitt discusses mindfulness and how the practice of mindfulness is related to the Buddha’s teaching on liberation from stress and suffering. You can find his article here: What is the Mindfulness of the Buddha? Also on the Spirit Rock website, Sean Oakes gives an introduction to mindfulness that includes a brief introduction to the… Continue reading