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Episode 113 - Right Intention Part - 3: Harmlessness

Release Date: 09/05/2021

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

In a world obsessed with DIY, YouTube tutorials, and learning everything ourselves, navigating the depths of our own minds can land us not knowing where to start or how to practice. In this episode of Buddhism for Everyone, JoAnn Fox breaks down a foundational practice in Tibetan Buddhism: Relying on a Spiritual Teacher. Far from checking your brain at the door or surrendering your autonomy, relying on a spiritual guide is like hiring an experienced mountain guide before attempting to summit Everest. Having a teacher is genuinely a life-hack that saves you years of trial and error. In this...

Episode 230 - Gratitude & Emptiness

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

When we hear the word "emptiness" (shunyata) in Buddhist philosophy, it’s easy to mistake it for nothingness or a bleak void. But true emptiness isn’t an absence of life: it is the absence of separation. It means nothing exists independently. Everything is interconnected. Everything depends on causes and conditions. One of the causes of how things exist is how we perceive them! So, how do we move this beautiful concept from our heads into our hearts? Through the daily practice of gratitude. The Mind as a Creator When we practice gratitude, we vividly see that things don't have a fixed,...

Episode 229 - Boundaries in Buddhism

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

In Buddhism, we’re encouraged to cherish others more and deepen our compassion. Some may wonder if there is a contradiction between these heart-opening practices and having healthy boundaries. But here is the truth: even the Buddha set boundaries. In the texts, the Buddha frequently chose who to engage with, when to enter noble silence, and how to protect himself so he could serve the world effectively. In fact, true compassion requires boundaries. Sometimes the kindest thing to do for another is to set a strong boundary. In this episode, JoAnn Fox explores the concept of boundaries through...

Episode 228 - Be Love

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

If you’ve ever longed for love—and let’s be honest, who hasn’t?—you’ll recognize the familiar dance our minds do. We build the "ideal" in our heads. We make lists of the qualities we need in a partner. We dissect our past heartbreaks like forensic investigators, trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. We search and search, looking outward for that one person who will finally fill the cup. But what if we’re looking at the map upside down? Buddhist wisdom suggests that the path to fulfillment isn't about finding the perfect love, but about becoming it. We...

Episode 227 - Always Rely on a Happy Mind Alone

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

Always rely on a happy mind alone. This Buddhist slogan for training the mind isn't about "positive thinking" or just being happy. A "happy mind" refers to a mind that is peaceful and free from delusions, like like anger, jealousy, pride or attachment. When a delusion like anger is operating in the mind, we no longer see clearly. A delusion is like a warped mirror: everything we see in this mirror is distorted. For example, when we’re hurt we might get angry at someone we love. Anger then makes us see that person as the cause of our pain, a threat, so that we speak and act in...

Episode 226 - Tame the Monkey Mind

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

Register for the free classes, Continuing the Walk for Peace: An Inner Peace Toolkit: https://buddhismforeveryone.com/walk-for-peace-toolkit In this episode, we talk about your monkey. The monkey on your back. You know the one. The brilliant, overachieving, slightly unhinged creature swinging through your mind at 2:00 a.m. reorganizing your life, replaying arguments, drafting emails you will never send. In an old Buddhist story, a man is given a magical monkey by his spiritual teacher. The magical monkey can do anything. Grant any wish. At first, it’s amazing. The monkey...

Episose 225 - Is your mind the Matrix?

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

In The Matrix, the red pill reveals the truth behind appearances and opens the path to freedom. In Buddhism, a realization of the true nature of reality is the ultimate path to freedom. In this episode, we explore how waking up to reality gives us the ability to reshape who you are because nothing is fixed learn to bend the “rules” of your reality unplug from emotional reactivity Buddha explained the ultimate truth of reality as “emptiness.” Emptiness does not mean nothingness. This teaching doesn’t mean that nothing exists. We have to ask ourselves, what is reality empty of?...

Episode 224: Finding Happiness in Others' Joy

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

Imagine feeling a burst of joy every time someone else wins. A friend gets a promotion, your sister finds love, a stranger shares good news, and you feel happiness with them. That spark of delight is the heart of sympathetic joy, or mudita, a Buddhist practice that flips the script on comparison and jeaousy. It turns the happiness of others into a source of our own happiness. It’s not magic, but it feels like it. When sympathetic joy is practiced with the bodhicitta intention to become a Buddha for the benefit of all beings, it becomes "Immeasurable Joy." Immeasurable Joy is a trained...

Episode 223 - Feed love or Feed Pain

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

We constantly make small choices that shape the reality of our relationships, whether with our partner, children, friends, or colleagues. They determine whether we deepen connection or cause resentment and distance to quietly grow. Every moment holds a fork in the road: Will I feed love, or will I feed pain? In this episode, we look the difference between love and attachment. Love is the wish that another person be happy. Attachment is the wish that they make us happy. Attachment is the habit of selfishness in relationships that causes pain. The strength of a relationship is directly...

Episode 222: Preventing Anger

Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox

Longtime Buddhist Teacher, JoAnn Fox, explores five powerful Buddhist antidotes to anger and aversion: patience acceptance recognizing karma remembering impermanence seeing other people or challenges as spiritual teachers compassion Learn how to meet challenges with wisdom instead of reaction. Buddha reminds us that peace isn’t about avoiding pain; it’s about understanding it. By practicing a simple yet profound method, W.A.I.T What Am I Thinking, we begin to free ourselves from the fires of aversion and cultivate genuine calm instead. In this way, we can...

More Episodes

In this last of a three episode series on Right Intention, one of the Noble Eightfold Path, we look at how to practice the aspect of harmlessness. Right intention has three parts: Renunciation, Loving-kindness, and Harmlessness. Buddhist Teacher, JoAnn Fox, also shares a meditation and daily mindfulness practice to help us cultivate harmlessness.

What is harmlessness in Buddhism

Harmlessness is a mind that opposes the wish to harm. It is also a path we cultivate gradually to its highest fruition—becoming harmless toward all living beings. It is compassion that helps us develop harmlessness. If there is the wish to harm or a lack of empathy that causes us to inadvertently cause harm, we use compassion to render ourselves harmless. Compassion is cultivated gradually until it is unconditional and extends to all living beings being exception. It is at this point that we possess the pure Right Intention of Harmlessness.

What are the benefits of developing compassion:

Creates good karma
Purifies bad karma
Makes our mind strong and resilient
Solves problems between people
Creates the cause of enlightenment

The Dalai Lama has also said it is the cause of success in life. Recently, he has even said that compassion is not a luxury, but a necessity for the survival of humanity:

“We need compassion and human affection not only to survive; they are the ultimate sources of success in life.” -Dalai Lama

The best of paths is the Eightfold [Path];

The best of truths, the Four [Noble Truths].

—Buddha, The Dhammapada

The eight parts of the Noble Eightfold Path:

Eightfold Path are Right View
Right Intention
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration

References and Links

Bodhi, Bhikku. The Noble Eightfold Path. Buddhist Publication Society, 1999, pp.37-39+. BuddhaNet. http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/noble8path6.pdf

Buddha.The Dhammapada. Translated by Gil Fronsdale. (Kindle). Shambala, Boston and London, 2011, pp. 72 (Link)

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