The best time to be happy is always now. You want the future to come, because it is better there. The future is an illusion. It is just a concept in your head. When it arrives, it will arrive as the present moment. If you are not here and now, you will miss it. You will keep ...

You may confuse happiness with accomplishments. When you achieve something new, when there is a new accomplishment to add to your success list, you probably feel happy. Only for a while. You tend to forget every one of your accomplishments very quickly and every failure sticks with you much longer.  Your brain prefers to remember all your failures rather than ...

The accumulation of material wealth and large bank accounts mean nothing at the moment of death. In actuality, the entirety of life is a preparation for dying. Living totally in the present moment allows you to create a fulfilled life and to face your impending death openly and with dignity. The realization that death can arrive ...

If the cause of suffering is unfulfilled desire, the solution to the problem must be to stop desiring. There are two ways of stopping desire: one either gets out of sight of the objects of desire (seclusion) or one tries to beat desire (asceticism). However, neither of these two approaches really work as the Buddha found out ...

When you really tune into life, you can feel the ebb and flow of creation itself. The in-breath of constriction and the out-breath of release. And if you look deeper within your own physiology, even your own body performs this same breathing rhythm to sustain your very life. So, do not ever let anyone tell you ...

Now as you do this, you begin to notice a rather curious change in your general feeling of life. You notice that there ceases to be what I would call an interruption or an interval between your experience and yourself.You see, in our ordinary way of using our minds the chronic sense of strain, the ...

A simple life has a different meaning and a different value for every person. It means eliminating all but the essential and spending your time doing what is important to you. It means getting rid of many of the things you do so you can spend time with people you love and do the things you ...

You know that you should purchase environment-friendly products and choose environment-friendly packaging when you go shopping. However, agreeing that this is a good idea does not necessarily mean that you do it. You base your consumer choices on the prices or packaging of products, unaware or unmindful of their environmental impact. If you want to change ...

The presence of plants help keep people calmer and make them feel good. People who feel at home with plants in their working environment are less likely to be ill and therefore take less time off work. They manage stress more effectively and their productivity is better. The ability of living plants to filter the air in ...

Nature teaches. Pay Attention. Observe. Reflect. Learn. Honor Nature. - Nature teaches you through direct observation, through scientific research, through spiritual practice, through mystical experience. Nature teaches you about the circle of life. Nature teachs you about birth and beginnings, about growth and development, about death and endings, about rebirth and renewal. Nature teaches you about ...

Only 10% listen effectively. You are so distracted by the cacophony of dings and tweets from smartphones, not to mention your ever-growing to-do lists, that you struggle to focus and listen when people talk to you. And if you are not distracted by technology, your own thoughts keep you from listening to another person. You often think that you are ...

Philosophers, psychologists, and ordinary people are all interested in one question: Who are you? The traditional philosophical answer is that the Self is an immortal soul that transcends the physical being. Some philosophers have swung in the other direction and rejected the idea and for them the Self is nothing more than a bundle of perceptions. The ...

Emptiness is a mode of perception, a way of looking at experience. It adds nothing to, and takes nothing away from, the raw data of physical and mental events. You look at events in the mind and the senses with no thought of whether there is anything lying behind them. This mode is called emptiness because it ...