Welcome!

About

KUSALA
peace of mind

Let’s look at our inner worlds — the personal struggles, the fears that fool us into believing that the rest of the world is normal.

Your thoughts can be both “skillful” (Kusala) and “unskillful” (Akusala). If your thoughts are un-wholesome and harmful, your mind can cause great damage to yourself and your body. The mind can also cure a sick body. When you concentrate on the right thoughts with the right understanding, your mind can produce a sense of ease and peace of mind.

Published irregularly, supported by the kind donations from readers, KUSALA (which means “karmically wholesome” in Pali) is a free online interactive magazine that presents Buddhism philosophy as practical living and applies the Dharma to our mental health. It intends to inspire and illustrate how Buddhist teachings can help us understand the challenges in our daily lives and how the application of these principles can have wholesome effects on ourselves and our surroundings.

We hear and read that we should look inside.

We suffer pain, mostly mental, and the Dharma, the wisdom-path, emphasizes how crucial it is to look inside.

Scientifically, Buddhist practices on meditation and mindfulness training have proven to ease minds from negativity and overwhelming emotions. We feel confident that the power of the Dharma, when translated into a lifestyle magazine combining personal experiences with informative Dharma, can help people lead better lives.

Real People, Real Stories

We share the lived experiences of real people, just like you or someone you know. It could be a monk, a volunteer, or a survivor with their own story to tell about mental health and wellbeing. It’s about sharing what we’ve learned to improve our outlook and experiences to inspire others to lead a more mindful and mentally healthy life. An article, a story shared by a volunteer, or a survivor’s personal experiences can help us understand what we are going through. Dharma, with no intention to label it exclusively to Buddhists, is the answer to our troubling minds.

Informative Dharma

Whether it is mindfulness training, meditation, or other aspects of Dharma, we include practical advice and philosophical content from Buddha’s teachings to help our readers nurture a better understanding and approach to apply to our day-to-day lives. It aims to present Buddhism philosophy as practical living and demonstrate how to apply the Dharma to our mental health. It intends to inspire and illustrate how Buddhist teachings can help us understand the challenges in our daily lives and how the  application of these principles can have wholesome effects on our surroundings and ourselves.

Lifestyle approach

We know there are a lot of subjects out there pertaining to Dharma, so we adopt a lifestyle approach, bringing Arts, Travel, Interior Design, Music, Movies, and Cooking together to spark our minds, touch our hearts, and inspire us. It’s all about mental health management, improvement, and overall wellbeing.

This magazine was developed solely from the voice of the editor, Kyle Neo. Drawing from the Dharma, his engaging personal experiences, traveling journeys, and stories from the various religious and non-religious organizations he volunteers with, the Buddhists and Non-Buddhists he encountered inspired him to publish this magazine. He strives to share these ordinary, endearing voices for the world to hear. He wants everyone to know that they are not alone in their emotional turmoil and life challenges.

Interactive

You can watch a video, download further information on an article you read, participate in our “to do” lists, listen to a talk, or engage in conversations and activities from this interactive online magazine.

Buddhism is not a religion

Buddhism has often been called or misunderstood as a religion, a philosophy, and, in recent years, psychology.

‘Religion’ refers to belief in, or recognition of, a higher, unseen power that controls the course of the universe. Moreover, religion has an emotional and moral component and has to do with rituals and worship. Because Buddhism does not recognize the existence of such power and does not universally emphasize rituals and worship, it is difficult to categorize Buddhism in general –and particularly the Abhidharma (one of the collection in the Buddhist canon) –as a religion.

Why Buddhism Dharma on Mental health

Buddhism’s emphasis on the importance of mental development is not surprising when we remember the importance of the mind in the Buddhist conception of experience. The mind is the single most important factor in the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. The Buddha himself put this very clearly when he said that the mind is the source of all things and that all things are created by the mind. Similarly, it has been said that the mind is the source of all virtues and other beneficial qualities. To obtain these virtues and qualities, you must discipline the mind. The mind is the key to changing the nature of experience.