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...
Our son was born two weeks ago. As with all new parents, we came home excited, exhausted, nervous and eager to share the news. So we took a lot of pictures, hoping to capture moments of exquisite cuteness we could share with our friends. Of...
My post this week will be my last as an IDP blogger. Among other things, I’ve realized the need to refocus my practice. I want to dedicate more time to my sitting meditation and yoga training and, in doing so, spend less time with my contemplative (...
Occupy Wall Street can look like many different things to different people. It can look inspiring – wow, here are at all these people trying to do something positive for the world! Or it can look frightening – ew, what a...
Often when we look around at the world duality is what we see. I can see how I am separate from you, from her, from him, from them. But on a deeper level what we feel is that there is no separation. There is only us. There...
Samsara is a Sanskrit word used by Buddhists to describe the cyclical nature of our own and societal suffering and dissatisfaction. Cynicism is the belief that there's no getting out of the mess we're in.
I’ve never been a patient person. Patience, as they say, is a virtue, quite a powerful and important one. Sadly, though it’s one that does not come easily for me.
When I hear about store windows being broken, fires being set to cars and busses, and hit and run vehicular homicide, I get pissed off. What if I had saved up for years to open a storefront in Tottenham to support my family? What...
The problem is not stories themselves but how we relate to them. We do not see our stories as stories because we see through them: the world we experience as reality is constructed with them. – David. R. Loy
Let’s be honest: we love to be distracted. We just do. Or, I suppose, I should own it - even with my years of meditation practice I often still find myself pulled toward pretty shiny things (or feelings) when the moment I’m currently...
A battle royale rages in my headspace. Good is fighting Bad. And Bad is fighting back. What’s a sober Buddhist practitioner to do with her conflicted self?
I'm super stoked about my medallion status on Delta Airlines. As I write this, I'm in the air earning the MQMs I need to achieve Platinum status on Delta. That's 75,000 Medallion Qualification Miles, which entitles me to a whole host...
I heart Pema Chödrön. I am almost always reading or re-reading one of her books. Though I might have read the same passage fifteen times before, each time something new speaks to me.
On multiple occasions this week I was asked, “What do you do?” during casual conversation or as a means of introduction. As a graduate student, this happens so regularly that I rarely think anything of it. We are constantly asked to...
In all my effort and practice, it is anatman or the notion of “no self” that I struggle with the most. It seems regardless of my understanding and agreement with the philosophy, I cling imperviously to the “I” and the...
