A typical dilemma among meditators goes something like this: “Love and compassion is my practice, so if someone really needs help, I should jump in. But so many people need help, so much of the time — how can I possibly say yes to everybody without getting completely depleted?” For practitioners who strive to be altruistic and generous, it’s a common concern.
READ
As we know, personal relationships can get stuck in an unhealthy pattern. Someone raises their voice in anger at you, and even though you don’t want to, you react by lashing out with cruel words. Of course, you want to change this reaction. To do this, you need to rely on the basic practices of awareness, love and compassion, and wisdom.
Deadlines, competition, pressure — the concept of “burnout” to describe a sense of nervous exhaustion has been around since the 70’s, but never has the feeling of burnout been as prevalent as it is these days. In a situation that’s demanding too much of us, it’s natural to experience burnout. Still, there are certainly a few things we can keep in mind.
In my tradition, we believe that with any type of relationship — between friends, family, teacher and student, or even the relationship between yourself and the society you live in — there are four points that need to be considered, sometimes called “the four enlightened activities.” These consist of peaceful activity, enriching activity, magnetizing activity, and powerful activity. All of them hinge on interdependence.
If you’re reading this, you’ve certainly received at least a few teachings that inspired you to meditate. But for some of us, there’s just one catch: we somehow can’t get around to actually doing it. “Oh my, the day went by so fast! Well, tomorrow, I’ll definitely make time to meditate.” Tomorrow comes and goes, and meditation gets put off until the next day . . . and the next.
What is patience, for a meditation practitioner? It’s a lot more than being able to discover that your flight has been delayed without raging at the people at the front desk, or being capable of hearing no, you can’t have that new toy, that bonus, or that fun adventure you wanted without having a meltdown
Low self-esteem is like a hungry goblin, gobbling up your vital energy and gleefully tanking your confidence, complicating your existing difficulties and even creating problems where there weren’t any.
Doing love and compassion meditation for somebody you love, or maybe a cherished pet? Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy! Practicing love and compassion for someone you’re not crazy about? You might find that a bit more challenging. But if you find it especially tough to use yourself as the subject for love and compassion meditation, you’re not alone
In popular imagination, Buddhism is often seen as equating life with suffering, but that’s not really accurate. In fact, Buddhism sees a lot of suffering as completely avoidable.
Unfortunately, in our ignorance, we don’t always act on these desires to be happy and free from suffering in a skillful way. When we’re confronted with things that scare us or rattle our cages, we immediately react with aversion,
If you enjoyed reading our articles, please join our mailing list and we’ll send you our news and latest pieces.
2024© Tergar International. The Tergar logo is a registered service mark of Tergar international.
