Dharma explorations by Stephanie Noble

From over fifteen years of sharing her understanding of Buddhist concepts

  • Eightfold Path: Right Intention

    Once we have an understanding of Right View, we can explore Right Intention, the second aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path. Right View, as I said before, can be experienced as a subtle yet life-changing shift within ourselves to a deeper more spacious vantage point where we sense (or are at least open to the…

  • Inaugural Blessings

    Pausing in our ongoing exploration of the Noble Eightfold Path, I would like to simply be present for this moment when such strong (and mostly jubilant) emotion is being felt throughout the world. I want to send metta (loving kindness blessings) to President Obama, his family and his administration. May they be safe and free…

  • Eightfold Path: Right View

    Right View (aka Wise Understanding) is the first guidepost on the Eightfold Path, and rightly so. Without the Right View, we might approach the Eightfold Path as a checklist of goals to be achieved. There is nothing to achieve. Striving to achieve takes us out of the present moment, and only in this moment can…

  • An Introduction to the Noble Eightfold Path

    Now we begin on the Fourth Noble Truth. To review the first three:The First Noble Truth is that there is suffering, the Second that it is our tendency to grasp and cling that causes this suffering, and the Third is that the end of suffering is possible. (For more in depth discussion, refer to prior…

  • Celebrating the Winter Solstice

    (This is a pastel by my friend Wendy Goldberg, titled Twilight Tomales.) Paying attention to the seasons and rhythms of the earth helps me to stay more present, so I enjoy celebrating the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. This year on December 21, 2008 at 4 :04 AM PST the earth is…