Dharma explorations by Stephanie Noble

From over fifteen years of sharing her understanding of Buddhist concepts

  • Cultivating my mama bear energy

    Happy Mother’s Day! Thank you to all of you who are mothers — birth mothers, adoptive mothers, step-mothers, foster mothers, mothers-in-law, and to all who bring forth loving protective energy in the care of what you love. Of course I am remembering my own mother. Lately I have been thinking most about her passion for…

  • The Incredible Shrinking Man

    That’s what my husband called himself after his annual physical. He’d lost two inches in height. Not overnight, of course. Two inches off of what he had stated as his height all his adult life. I remember when I started shrinking. It was a little disorienting, but also fascinating to see how attached I was…

  • What’s the difference between empathy and compassion?

    (Following up on a comment on the last post.)Empathy is inherent to brain development. From a very young age most of us are able to pick up on the emotional states of others. This ability is a benefit to the development of relationships, but it can also be problematic if a child is surrounded by…

  • The earth teaches us true compassion

    The earth provides us with everything we need to live. It’s a model of compassion. How different is the earth’s compassion from the way we fashion our own? First, consider that the earth is there for all beings. It doesn’t pick and choose who is worthy to walk on it. And you never see the…

  • What gets in the way of loving-kindness?

    When we see how loving-kindness (metta in the Pali language) makes all the difference in our lives and in our relationships, why is it sometimes so difficult to muster? Believing that metta is finiteWhen we practice sending metta we are activating our natural sense of generosity. This generosity comes in part from understanding the nature…