It is against soul ninja policy to freak out. This is a cardinal rule. And it’s a hard one, so it helps that it’s also funny. Life can be unbelievably infuriating. It can be scary, and unfair, and heartbreaking. It can be violently unjust. Life is…
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the word kshanti can be described as three types of patience. The first is gentle forbearance. The second is enduring hardship. Patience and endurance have a deep connection, not just in practice but in the words that describe them both.…
One week into my month of practicing patience, here’s what’s come up for me: I’m learning to be patient with my sadness. It’s not what I expected to emerge. (I thought the most obvious thing would be my own impatience!) But after a week of midterm…
Kshanti, or patience, is described in three unique ways. Today I want to talk about patience as gentle forbearance. Gentle forbearance is probably what we most readily think about when we think about patience. It’s that quality of being non-reactive, of breathing deep instead of raging…
For the month of November, I’ll be practicing the paramita kshanti, which means patience. It is also translated as forbearance. Kshanti is the quality of being steadfast, regardless of what’s happening around you. It’s steadiness and endurance and has the sense of a kind of peaceful…
Happy Halloween! Today also happens to be the final day in October, and all month I’ve been practicing the paramita called discipline. I wrote the other day about how the impression I’m left with is that discipline is beautiful. And part of what’s beautiful is that…
“Ethical discipline is an adornment which suits everyone.” – Geshe Sonam Rinpoche At the beginning of this month, the one word I wasn’t expecting to use to describe discipline is beauty. One of the most surprising things I noticed in my readings on practicing discipline was…
It can feel so overwhelming to experience a wave of big emotions. And sometimes, we respond by shutting down. In other words, we hold a protest. Sometimes we protest by demanding that they go away, or at least go underground. Other times we choose to avoid them,…
I’ll be honest- this past week of practicing discipline has been less than stellar. A number of factors–some I controlled, some I didn’t– led to me falling out of the rhythm of my schedule completely. But I wouldn’t be a good soul ninja if I didn’t…
The more I learn about and practice martial arts, the more I realize this is true: real strength is quiet strength. I know this is a strange thing to say when we’re surrounded by a culture that thinks real strength is bully strength, bravado strength. But…
