What’s the Attitude in the Mind?
The article explores how the mind automatically labels experiences as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral and then reacts with holding on, pushing away, or ignoring. It argues that resistance to unpleasant sensations and clinging to pleasant ones generate additional suffering, while neutral awareness can foster calm. Drawing on the Buddhist Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the piece encourages practitioners to observe attitudes without judgment and to discern whether mental patterns lead toward or away from well‑being. Over time, this non‑reactive observation can become a compass for healthier choices and reduced stress.
How Honesty Frees the Mind
The Buddha teaches his son Rahula that even a small lie empties the contemplative mind, likening it to a ladle emptied of water. He stresses that shame for deliberate falsehood is a core guard for spiritual practice, and that truthfulness...
Learning to Be Content
Christiane Wolf frames daily decision‑making around a Buddhist question: does an action foster more contentment or more craving? She argues that modern abundance fuels an insatiable “more‑more” mindset, leading to chronic dissatisfaction. By treating mindfulness as a flashlight that illuminates...
The Bliss of Blamelessness
The Buddha’s “handful of leaves” parable illustrates that the vast knowledge of enlightenment can be distilled into a small, practical set of teachings. In Buddhism this set comprises three pillars—generosity (dāna), ethical conduct (sīla), and mental cultivation (bhāvanā). The article...
We Are Deeply Interconnected
The InsightLA essay "We are Deeply Interconnected" argues that quiet meditation uncovers hidden conditioning and that Dharma friendships—relationships rooted in shared mindfulness practice—amplify personal transformation. By framing human experience as a network of interdependent beings, the author likens our mental...
Nurturing Wise Attention
In today’s always‑on environment, relentless notifications and algorithm‑driven feeds hijack our attention, flooding dopamine pathways much like slot machines. Stanford researchers show these reward loops can mirror the impact of alcohol or stronger substances, while minor algorithm tweaks can shift...
Seeing Our World Differently
At a recent InsightLA gathering, participant Pablo Das explained how mindfulness can temper rumination and hyper‑vigilance that often follow trauma. He described mindfulness as an objective, non‑reactive awareness that lets individuals pause before reacting, creating space to evaluate thoughts, speech,...
Finding Freedom Through Mindful Therapy with Lisa Kring
Lisa Kring, LCSW, combines over 25 years of Theravada mindfulness with somatic and attachment‑based therapies to create a non‑pathologizing psychotherapy model. Her practice at InsightLA targets individuals dealing with anxiety, trauma, chronic illness, grief, and parenting challenges. Kring offers a...