The Buddha lived in a deeply troubled world. Kings ruled through violence, armies decimated villages, and slavery threaded daily life. Even those close to the Buddha suffered: his supporter Bimbisara was imprisoned by his own son & starved in his cell; his clan was nearly wiped out by King Viddhudabha; his cousin Devadatta tried to kill him. In this context, the Path took shape: a clear, compassionate way to meet a world on fire without adding more flame.
In the early texts the Buddha speaks of samsara as beginningless: a beginningless wandering, where the tears shed from separation & loss exceed the water in the four great oceans. Anyone attuned to today’s tragedies recognizes the tide. He names that tide, then shows how not to be swept away.
Samsara is often taken to mean the world itself. More precisely, it points to patterns of heart & mind: the habits of greed, aversion, and confusion that recreate suffering. The cycle isn’t only outer; it begins with inner patterns that shape speech & action.
One early discourse pictures the Buddha-to-be witnessing violence & shaking with fear: “creatures flopping around, like fish in water too shallow, so
hostile to one another!” He longs for a place unscarred by conflict & cannot find it. Then he notices a thorn lodged deep in the heart, the hidden point that drives us to run in all directions & perpetuate harm. “If that thorn is taken out, one stops running & settles.”
It is a radical response. Instead of fastening on enemies or quick remedies, he turns toward the engine of violence itself.
That thorn has familiar names: greed, hatred, and delusion, and it does not come out with a single tug; it is layered & habitual, resurfacing in thought, speech, and action. The Buddha’s image of the bamboo acrobats, each caring for their own poise so they can truly care for the other, is fitting & precise. Mindfulness is that balance. Guarding one’s steadiness also protects others.
This is not passivity. It is the groundwork for wise action. We pause, feel the tremor of fear or heat of hatred, and soften around it. The emotion may not vanish, but space opens; in it, listening, patience, and clarity return. From that steadiness, engagement becomes medicine rather than contagion.
The civil rights leader Rev. James Lawson modeled this union of action & inner freedom. He trained protesters to endure abuse without retaliating, testing
whether nonviolence had reached bone & breath. Those who lost balance weren’t sent into the hottest fires. “We started the public desegregation of the nation, and we did it without hating anybody,” he said. That is what a real revolution sounds like.
When the world’s troubles feel endless, the Dharma offers something essential: a way to stop spinning the wheel. Take out the thorn. Act, yes, but from a heart that knows its currents & trusts the possibility of a freer response. In doing so, we help this troubled world through true, steady, wise compassion.
The blessings of Autumn are unfolding here in northern New Mexico as is currently happening in many places around the planet. This time of year, the natural world all around us offers abundant Dharma practice opportunities in ordinary & profound ways.
animal and plant, are rooted in the processes of Anicca/change/impermanence. Our bodies, our ideas, likes & dislikes, our emotions… our very life is basically grounded in these same processes that underlie how the natural world shows up & expresses itself. Can you even imagine what it would be like if there were no change? In truth, without Anicca/change/impermanence there would be no life.
We have received an inestimable gift. To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe—to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it—is a wonder beyond words. It is an extraordinary privilege to be accorded a human life, with self-reflexive consciousness that brings awareness of our own actions & the ability to make choices. It lets us choose to take part in the healing of our world.
choose to turn to the breath, the body, the senses—for they help us to relax & open to wider currents of knowing & feeling.
Some time before the Buddha was about to die, he gave his disciples a word of encouragement and advice. He said this – and I’m putting it into my own words: “Freedom from suffering is available to you if you practice by the proper means of mindfulness, but not without having the aspiration to learn, and 
with the dharma or that we “should” be doing something else to realize our aspiration. Right here we can remind ourselves that our job is to do what the teachings require of us, working with mindfulness in this moment. Anything more than sincerely doing the practice is a hindrance to it’s unfolding. The wondering when, if, how soon and what else we can do to speed up the process – this is all worry and agitation.
In a world facing deep unrest, the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths offer both clarity and compassion. As taught in the discourse on “
How can we move out of what might be our usual way of doing things & into new territory? Not to escape what may seem or feel like a catastrophe looming around us… looming around the world… but to more fully & clearly meet what is occurring. 
metta, begin to connect with a ‘true’ sense of 
When fifth-century monk-scholars shaped a list of the heart-mind characteristics of the Bodhisattva’s path to buddhahood, these Paramis, or “Perfections,” began with generosity. The sequence was a reflection of the way the Buddha offered his teachings: the Buddha’s first talk in a new community was usually about generosity. Probably the Buddha began with generosity partly because he recognized that it is and has been so widely accepted as one of the most basic human virtues by so many cultures. But there was a more important reason: Generosity is a foundational building block of spiritual development and his most important teachings. 
clinging, an end to attachment, to stinginess, to greed to material things — even to our most cherished ideas and sense of self. 
different way. More like a field scientist gathering data. You start to see more clearly: When this happens, it leads to that. For example, when my kid starts screaming and throws herself on the floor then tightness arises in my chest, there is anxiety, and helplessness and frustration. Out of that, the urge to raise my voice, to do something to get this to stop is increasing. How interesting! If I am able to actually be aware of this process mindfully and with curiosity then the miracle of choice opens up. I can choose the response that is the most in alignment with my values, for example to not yell at my kids. Victor Frankl is quoted to have said that between the stimulus and the response there is a space. And in that space lies our freedom to choose. It can free us from the habit loop, from reacting on autopilot. 
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The patience gained from intensive or regular meditation at home will come in good stead in our daily life when we have to deal with the imperfections of ourselves & others. Others’ speech may be timely or untimely, true or untrue, gentle or harsh, connected with good or with harm, spoken with a mind of loving-kindness or with inner hate. Whatever others might be saying, we need to abide in patience, compassion, and loving-kindness.
Each of you reading this article are in this moment experiencing the gift, protection & the grace…the great blessing of having obtained a precious human existence. It’s rare, this precious human existence…& especially rare from the standpoint of the Dhamma. Those who have a precious human existence with all the conditions, opportunities & blessings in place to have connected with & to be able to practice the Dhamma are as rare as daytime stars. Just being in a human body is actually a remarkably rare occurrence in light of the amazing variety & numbers of all the various life forms that inhabit this planet. Shariputta, one of the Buddha’s chief disciples, once asked the Buddha about the difference in numbers between humans & other living beings. The Buddha compared this to the dust on his fingernail versus the dirt of the whole earth.
we have obtained a precious human birth & have decided to pursue the causes of happiness & not the causes of suffering. The great East Indian teacher Nisargadtha speaks about this as “being selfish in the right way”. Rejoicing in the fact that one is alive & connected to the Dhamma is truly a blessing that lightens the heart & helps to set a tone for practice that is one of the primary factors necessary for liberation…the heart/mind/ of joy. 
FROM JANANESE ZEN POET NANAO SAKAKI: