Dr Dosti Regmi Blog

Taoism: The Quiet Wisdom of the Way Taoism (Daoism) is one of the most subtle and paradoxical philosophical traditions to emerge from ancient China. Rooted in the teachings attributed to Lao Tsu and later expanded by thinkers like Zhuangzi, Taoism is less a system of doctrines and more a way of seeing and living—a return to naturalness, simplicity, and effortless harmony with existence. At the heart of Taoism lies the Tao (Dao)—often translated as “The Way.” Yet, from the very first lines of the classic text Tao Te Ching, we are warned that the Tao cannot be captured in words: “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” This opening paradox sets the tone for the entire tradition. Taoism invites us not to define reality, but to experience it directly, much like the meditative traditions of the East. It is a philosophy that dissolves rigid concepts and reveals a fluid, ever-changing world. The Tao is not a god, nor a fixed entity. It is the underlying process of existence, the spo...

Striving to improve ourselves, we have destroyed ourselves. Our greatest enemy is any thought that promises to improve ourselves, Following a promise to improve ourselves is a sheer disrespect for what we are. Every thought is a distraction from what we are. And so are the circumstances and characters we meet and the substances we use. We are already Buddhas. That´s why Zen master says "If you meet the Buddha on the way, kill him." -Dosti Regmi  

  @Pictures in the corridor, LeBonheur Children's Hospital radiology department, where I work.  

   Psychology Bites 1. You cannot think your way out of anxiety. Overthinking is often a maladaptive attempt to solve anxiety. Trying to reason your way out of it is like giving directions while you are drowning. What you need in that moment is not a TED talk—you need a life raft. Anxiety lives in the body: the racing heart, the tight chest, the sinking feeling in the stomach. So pause. Breathe. Move your body. Feel first, think later. 2. You cannot be calm and “zen” all the time. Emotions are part of being human. The goal is not to eliminate anxiety but to manage your relationship with it. Let anxiety sit in the passenger seat if it must—but don’t let it drive the car. 3. Practice thought diffusion. Name your brain. Give it a personality. This playful technique helps create distance from your thoughts. Instead of saying “I am a failure,” you might say, “Anxious Andy is catastrophizing again.” When you name the pattern, you step outside it. You are hearing the thoughts, not ...

  Reflection on the Journey of Mindfulness Mindfulness first appeared to me as something deceptively simple—just paying attention to the breath. Like many beginners, I assumed it was primarily a technique for relaxation or stress reduction. Yet as I spent more time with the practice, I gradually sensed that mindfulness was pointing toward something much deeper. It was not merely an exercise in calming the mind but a quiet inquiry into the nature of experience itself. The journey begins with the most immediate aspect of existence—the body and the breath. Sitting quietly and noticing the breath entering and leaving the body appears almost trivial at first. Yet this simple act slowly reveals a subtle world of sensations: the coolness of inhalation at the nostrils, the warmth of the exhalation, the gentle expansion and contraction of the chest, the steady rhythm that continues whether we pay attention to it or not. By repeatedly returning attention to the breath, the wandering ...

Many people who practice meditation deeply for years—especially within traditions rooted in Gautam Buddha's teaching and the introspective path of Ramana Maharshi —often report similar shifts in understanding. These are not mystical beliefs but experiential realizations that gradually arise from sustained awareness and self-inquiry . Here are seven of the most common and powerful ones. 1. Thoughts Are Not the Self One of the earliest and most liberating realizations is that thoughts are events in the mind, not the essence of who we are . Through meditation, practitioners begin to see thoughts arise and disappear like clouds in the sky. The observer—the awareness behind them—remains unchanged. This insight weakens identification with mental narratives such as “I am a failure” or “I am not enough.” Instead, one begins to recognize that the mind is simply producing stories. Practice tip: When a strong thought arises, silently say: “thinking… thinking.” Watch it pass rat...

  How to Practice Mahā Prajñā Pāramitā Mahā Prajñā Pāramitā — the Great Perfection of Wisdom — is one of the most profound streams of Buddhist insight, articulated in the Prajñā Pāramitā sūtras of the Mahāyāna tradition. At its heart lies the famous mantra from the Heart Sūtra: Gate Gate Pāragate Pārasaṃgate Bodhi Svāhā , often translated as “Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, awakening, so be it.” The mantra is not a spell but a declaration of realization — a movement from conditioned perception to awakened seeing. Its central teaching is emptiness (śūnyatā), which does not imply nihilism or non-existence, but rather the absence of inherent, independent essence in all phenomena. Everything arises interdependently; nothing stands alone. Emptiness therefore, reveals freedom: when things are seen as dependently arisen rather than solid and self-existing, clinging softens and compassion naturally expands. In Theravāda Buddhism, this wisdom is expressed thro...

    Adversity as Teacher There is a subtle arrogance in the way the mind judges events. Something happens — a loss, a delay, a rejection — and almost instantly the verdict arises: This is bad. The conclusion feels solid, unquestionable. Yet life has a way of revealing that our judgments are often premature. What we resist today may become the doorway we are grateful for tomorrow. An old Chinese parable tells of a farmer whose horse ran away. The neighbors gathered in sympathy. “What terrible luck,” they said. The farmer responded simply, “Maybe.” The next day the horse returned, bringing wild horses with it. “How wonderful!” the neighbors exclaimed. Again the farmer said, “Maybe.” Soon after, his son tried to ride one of the wild horses, fell, and broke his leg. “How unfortunate.” “Maybe.” Days later, soldiers arrived to conscript young men for war. The injured son was spared. The farmer’s wisdom was not optimism. It was humility. He understood something profound: we ...

Unhappiness is not born from the world itself but from ignorance — from not seeing clearly, not seeing things as they are. This insight lies at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. The Buddha identified ignorance (avijjā) as the root of suffering (dukkha). We suffer not because life is inherently cruel, but because we misperceive it. We cling to what is impermanent, resist what is inevitable, and construct narratives about ourselves and the world that distort reality. We do not see clearly; therefore, we suffer. When we examine our experience carefully, what we call “reality” begins to loosen its solidity. What we perceive is filtered through conditioning, memory, expectation, and emotion. The mind does not passively receive the world; it actively interprets it. Neuroscience suggests that sensory information is already processed by the limbic system — colored by emotion and survival instinct — before it reaches the reflective prefrontal cortex. By the time we “think” about something rati...

Self-Inquiry, Non-Judgment, and the End of Reactivity:  Two of the most transformative aspects of mindfulness are: Not being self-judgmental or self-critical, and not being reactive to external stimuli and circumstances. But how do we actually cultivate these qualities — not as ideas, but as lived experience? One of the most direct and radical methods comes from the 20th-century sage Ramana Maharshi. His essential teaching can be summarized in two words: Know Thyself.  Or more precisely: Ask: Who am I? Ramana Maharshi did not offer elaborate philosophy, rituals, or dogma. His teaching was simple and uncompromising: The root of suffering is the mistaken identification with the ego — the “I” that we believe ourselves to be. This “I” is a thought. If we investigate this “I,” it dissolves. What remains is pure awareness — the true Self.  He called this method Atma Vichara — Self-Inquiry.  Whenever a thought arises, especially a troubling one, instead of analyzing t...

For forty-five years after enlightenment, the Buddha repeated a simple declaration: “I teach only suffering and the transformation of suffering.” This statement, attributed to Gautama Buddha, has often been misunderstood. Many conclude that Buddhism proclaims: “Life is suffering.” But that is not what the Buddha taught. He taught that suffering must be recognized, understood, and transformed. He never taught that suffering is the ultimate truth of existence. In fact, the Third Noble Truth affirms precisely the opposite: the cessation of suffering is real. Joy is real. Liberation is real. The First Dharma Talk: Not Pessimism, But Medicine: After his awakening beneath the Bodhi tree, the Buddha walked to Deer Park in Sarnath and delivered what is known as the “Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.” Three themes characterized this first teaching: The Middle Way — avoiding both self-mortification and indulgence. The Four Noble Truths — a diagnostic path of healing. Engagement in the world — ...

The Gateless Gate   The Gateless Gate is a 13th-century Zen koan collection compiled by the Chinese monk Wumen Huikai (Japanese: Mumon Ekai). It contains 48 koans—brief encounters between masters and students—each followed by Wumen’s commentary and a short verse. Mumon says the barrier to awakening is not outside us. It is the mind’s attachment to concepts, language, and identity. The “gate” has no gate because nothing external blocks realization. What blocks us is clinging to views, self-image, logic, even to “Buddhism.” He says. "Those who cling onto words are fools who believe that they can catch the moon with a stick or can scratch their itchy foot through a leather shoe. How can they "see" reality as it actually is?" Koans are not riddles to be solved intellectually. They are devices that exhaust discursive thinking, collapse dualistic reasoning, and force direct, non-conceptual seeing. When thought fails, direct awareness remains. It is against the word drunk...