Written by David Nichtern

Our mouth is the gateway to so many kinds of karma. What goes in (food, drink, etc.) becomes inextricably linked with who we are and how we feel. What goes out (speech mostl...

Written by David Nichtern

At Buddhist seminary near Vancouver in 1980, I requested a personal interview with my teacher, the late Tibetan meditation master, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. I had been going...

Written by David Nichtern

My taiji teacher, Sat Hon, is a virtual lexicon of sage and colorful phrases. One of my favorite expressions of his is “embrace uncertainty.” There is always uncertainty in ...

Written by David Nichtern

Sometimes our “negative” habits (like anger, pride, jealousy, craving etc.) seem to come up like a cyclone out of nowhere. Often we might feel powerless to change them, let ...

Written by David Nichtern

In mindfulness meditation practice, we are instructed to rest our attention on our breathing as a way to focus and stabilize our mind. This is an ancient and time-honored ap...

Written by David Nichtern

“The entire Buddhist path is based on the discovery of egolessness and the maturing of insight or knowledge that comes from egolessness.”

— Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Journe...

Written by David Nichtern

I had a major epiphany once while playing with our family’s chocolate toy poodle, Leroy Brown. I realized that he’s just trying to be happy. Sometimes when he’s trying to be...

Written by David Nichtern

Three separate but synchronous conversations led me to recently explore the topic of contentment.

The first was with childhood friend and fellow musician, Christopher Guest...

Written by David Nichtern

Boredom is an underrated experience in the modern world. The rate at which new information, new opportunities, new entertainment, new distractions are coming towards us is a...