Householder Dharma

'“Meditate on those with whom you are closely connected,” a Tibetan heart-mind training text says. Often our family is the most intense field of projection: we mistake wife, husband, child for our own narrow, accustomed thoughts of them, and for that reason, family can provoke great suffering. But family can act as the richest vehicle for spiritual practice. Spousal abuse, child abuse, elder abuse: when in bondage to suffering thoughts of self and others, family arises as curse. But when we learn to sense the emptiness of our thought habit, and through that our natural reverence and care for others, family arises as profound blessing.'

- Lama John Makransky, "Family Practice" (Summer 2001)