This podcast features a lecture by Acharya Eric Spiegel titled "The Terma (Revealed Treasure) Tradition of Shambhala." It was recorded on October, 2010 in New York City.
Yesterday, the AP published a story about a man who, when viewing Bristol Palin's routine on Dancing with the Stars, was so enraged by her performance that he took a shotgun to the television and blew a big 'o hole in it.
Although...
Receiving a gift of food, shelter, a Mercedes Benz -- there can be as much rejection of the world as when one is stingy with their change. Graciously receiving a gift is as much an act of opening as giving one is.
Yes, it is. And in honor of National Unfriend Day I'm going to tell you exactly how the internet is lying to you. It is lying because it is promising you endless satisfaction of all your desires - if you feel it, want it, wonder it, want to...
In his essay, Instructions for the Cook, Zen Master Dogen encourages us to use all the ingredients of our life. Koshin Paley Elliso explores Zen Master Dogen's discussion with a cook eight hundred years ago in China and how it is both...
Last weekend I faced an ethical dilemma. It has not yet been fully resolved. My girlfriend and I found the most adorable Shih Tzu puppy at a puppy store in the West Village. Yes. A puppy store.
This post is the most biased I've attempted in a while. I love Luc Tuymans' paintings. L-O-V-E them. His show, Corporate, is now up at David Zwirner Gallery.
Look at this one:
Take a 2,600-year-old spiritual tradition from Asia and drop it into the blender of postmodern American consumer culture. Add science and multiculturalism to taste, and mix at Internet speed. This is 21st-Century Buddhism -- a weekly blog for the...
I had the awesome opportunity to moderate the panel discussion at the kickoff of the Rebel Buddha tour with book author Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara, and Mitra Mark Power. The topic: “What is American Buddhism?...
This weekend was a real one-two punch, a real dharma smackdown. A true Buddhist cage match. Sorry, but I'm running a little confused today, after Thursday's visit to Blue Cliff Monastery, on the Bodhisattva Vow with Roshi O'Hara,...
According to a new study, it turns out that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. That's a pretty amazingly simple discovery, but the study demonstrates that our happiness level is less based on what we are doing than how simply we are engaged...
Tho' the IDP leads a robust existence in the digital realm (thousands worldwide listen to our podcasts, read the blog, and participate in home-study courses) we are physical as well, with more than 200 local members who donate monthly and...
Today is Veterans Day. I come from a long line of veterans. My brother served recently in Iraq for the Marines, while we grew up in an Air Force family where moving every 3-4 years was commonplace (hello Oklahoma! hello California! hello South...
Roshi Enkyo O'Hara (IDP lineage mentor and Soto Zen teacher extraordinaire) is going to be teaching on and offering the Bodhisattva Vow this weekend at IDP. The Bodhisattva Vow is basically what crazy people do. We vow to completely...
The colors dance, yellow is yellow, and green is green, and they become a new color when they mix, and that new color dances with another -- and it goes on...and on...
As I practiced mindfulness of my body recently in preparation for my morning practice, I experienced a profound wave of gratitude for sensation - what felt good, what felt "not good", the ability to stand there at all and feel my body...
Take a 2,600-year-old spiritual tradition from Asia and drop it into the blender of postmodern American consumer culture. Add science and multiculturalism to taste, and mix at Internet speed. This is 21st-Century Buddhism -- a weekly blog for the...
