Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche has just published his fourth major book, The Shambhala Principle, and I’ve been lucky enough to spend a good deal of time reading and rereading my now-wrinkled advanced readers’ copy over the past few...
Membership month at IDP is winding down -- although, really, you can join at any time during the year -- so I wanted to take advantage of the space that I get on the blog every week to share why I'm a member and encourage you to join up.
On a day of insanity and horror, one of the most heartwarming things for me was reading this passage in comedian Patton Oswalt's Facebook post about the Boston Marathon tragedy, which went viral on the social network:
Many friends and I have all checked out this great smartphone app called Insight Timer, which lets you keep really good track of meditation sessions and connect with other meditators around the world. IDP has several online...
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Big News: A new study from the University of Toronto claims that meditation makes individuals more politically liberal in their outlook and actions. Although it...
On Valentine's Day, Facebook asked me if I wanted to send my spouse "a real Facebook gift." What does that mean? I asked myself (and then my Facebook friends -- who are almost real world friends). Does a "real" Facebook gift exist offline, ie IRL?...
Last year, I posted the below article to the IDP blog, at the conclusion of my participation in our first year-long Immersion Training program. Since then, my path has continued to unfold before me and reveal itself in ways obvious and...
Yesterday I donated $25 to Rolling Jubilee, which is the latest interesting project by the Occupy Movement. The project, operates as a compassionate debt relief system, which in its own words:
"buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead...
Here are the top 10 things I learned in the two craziest weeks of 2012. May all experience lead to insight, and may all insight lead to skillful means. And may all skillful means lead to an end of suffering, and may that lead to all sentient beings...
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Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is one of my favorite novels, and is...
Oh, Chris Rock, I bow to you. A friend of mine was recently dating a stand-up comedian, and we were talking about the similarities between teaching Buddhism and stand-up, at least when teaching in a group. Sometimes it definitely feels like giving a...
May the causes of violence, both internal and external, cease on Earth.
11 years later, this day still feels important, even if the importance has the quieter tone of a memory you've started to take for granted and pull out of your mental pocket to...
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I always consider Labor Day and the beginning of September to be a more pragmatic and realistic New Year’s occasion than whatever happens in January. In fact, many people who question our...
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Hi, all. We are hoping you had a wonderful summer and are excited to announce our Fall 2012 offerings of exceptional online classes, retreats, lectures, and our continuing Transformational Activism...
(follow Ethan on Facebook or Twitter)I am thinking of Aurora, Colorado today. I am guessing, as Roger Ebert suggested in his Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, that some people will call for a reduction in movie violence. Ebert seems to think this...
I am feeling moved to respond to Kimberly Brown's piece about the experience of going to the Berkshires for a summer trip and coming back to New York City. THAT exact moment of returning to the city -- beautifully described in Ethan's novella -- is...
The first annual Compassion Day is Friday, July 6th. It's also His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 77th birthday. Created by the FPMT (the Federation for the Preservation of the Mahayana...
