A few days ago, a Brooklyn teenager died after he was shot eleven times by NYPD officers. His name was Kimani Gray, and according to his sister, he was a good kid who kept his head down.
1. Meditation demonstrates that all things are interdependent and constantly changing. Initially, the realization that we’re all in a life situation that is fundamentally groundless may be quite daunting and even depressing. But it’s not...
My last two blog contributions were morning ruminations. This one is a bit earlier…or later I suppose. As I am writing this, it is Wednesday evening and all is quiet. The pup and wife are in bed, and I am up ruminating. Ruminating about meaning and...
The controversy surrounding whether meditation practice should be accessible to those suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) brings up a lot of interesting and important questions.
I was planning to write a post today about holiday gift-giving and how we're all under so much pressure to buy presents that we forget what it's like to be generous. Except on Saturday I started to feel pain around my right eye. I...
“Reality is always kinder than the stories we tell about it.” - Byron Katie
Can you imagine understanding, even loving, someone who belongs to a group of people responsible for killing your father, brother, or best friend? Can you...
My neighbor has a great big dog. It's a little smaller than a horse. You can't go outside with a dog like that without training it first. Otherwise, it'll just pull you down the street, terrifying every man, woman, and child along the way.
Our minds...
“Wisdom doesn’t look like one thing.” DPR
This is easy to forget. Today it looks like structure and ferocity. Tomorrow it may look soft and vulnerable. It may look like what naturally arises, but it may also be the opposing force to what seems...
After our son was born, nearly six months ago, I marveled at the lessons he taught me. His determined effort to self-soothe was clear, even as was incapable of the act. His attention to the importance of every step was inspiring. He treated every...
Life is beautiful and full of pain. When we feel something painful in our hearts, our instinct is to escape. We can be like little kids, seeing a bee and running away in terror.
by Kimberly Brown
(follow Kim on Twitter)
If you're anything like me, you probably think the opposite of clinging is indifference. If I don't care, then I'm not attached, right? Wrong. From a Buddhist perspective, the...
I noticed a manifestation of my meditation practice crawling across my leg in plain view as my practice was ending this morning. It was black—pitch-black. It was small—smaller than a
Buddhism is founded on four facts about the nature of existence (the Four Noble Truths), the first fact being that everyone experiences suffering. There is "big" suffering (sickness, pain, and loss) and then there is "ordinary" suffering,...
Like an elastic band the pain in my mouth snaps me back to the dharma, the reality, of my fragile body in this singular moment in space time. All my hopes and fears, all my activism and frivolity, all my sins and virtues are rendered...
We need to acknowledge joy as well as suffering -- or we won't know why we want to alleviate suffering. Joy walks hand in hand with compassion; it protects our hearts from the bitterness that might arise if we see only suffering. And together...
Two weeks ago I almost lost someone whom I love very much. The phone rang as I was writing at my desk and it was a doctor I didn’t know telling me what had just happened. As I listened to the doctor’s somber words, I suddenly became...
Let’s face it--Buddhism has a rather gloomy reputation. Sure, the words “kindness” and “compassion” sometimes come to mind when someone hears the “B” word, but all too often, what most people think of when...
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.
Jack Kornfield, in A Path With Heart: Many people come to spiritual practice hoping to skip over their sorrows and wounds, the difficult areas of their lives. They hope to rise above them and enter a spiritual realm full of divine...
