Understanding Buddhism involves studying its texts, which range from bizarre or outdated to intense, poetic, profound and silly; looking at it’s transformation as it traveled throughout Asia and to the West; considering how teachings have...
"What matters most" was printed in a fancy red font on the moving boxes set on the curb on trash day. I wondered if that was true for the family who had just moved, that the things that had been in those boxes were what mattered...
Trolling yoga blogs and the comment threads that ensue reveals a prevailing sentiment of tough love. Sure, there are a few hold-outs from the sixties still hanging around but the new breed of yogi is way too savvy to be fooled by any fluff and...
Seems like an obvious question – what is a blessing? – Yet if I think about a life lived in sufficiency I begin to wonder about the qualities of a blessing.
What if, instead of merely accepting the inevitable truth that everyone will die, we saw them as already dead? Does that subtle shift make a difference?
"...the root meaning of the word radical is just that...the root or origin of something. To be radical is therefore to go to the root of something. Radical is a method or approach to "knowing"...going beyond surface manifestations...
"...what does your friend who is a yogini, what can she reveal that will help you in your Buddhist practice? Or what does the meditator have that might be enlightening to their friend who studies yoga?..."
Ever heard the one about the Dalai Lama and the hotdog vendor? Make me one with everything. This has always been my favorite joke. Recently, I was made aware of how, like a lot of effective humor, the punchline is based on a not so funny...
"Nowadays, people think that if you have a Guru you would spend a great deal of time with them and they would be in your business constantly, but generally you receive instruction and then you go practice. At some point you check in or you...
"The Irish Potato Famine was one of the great examples of those disasters of the modern era that are not crises of scarcity, but of distribution." - Rebecca Solnit
There is a lot to write about. A few weeks ago when Troy Davis was executed, I wanted to write about the death penalty, but didn’t feel I had anything substantial to offer the dialogue. It is obvious to me that 99.9% of Buddhists do not...
I have only been in one fight. It was in the third grade. I don’t recall what the impetus was but it ended up in a war of words between me and another boy on the basketball court. I remember deciding to hit him but when I went to strike...
If people, throughout their lives, were seen as human beings with the same needs as other human beings, fewer heinous crimes would be committed. Taking the long view, treating people as human beings would probably do a lot more to reduce crime...
"Curing is remedial and involves fixing whatever outer problem arises..It does not help you avoid the nails on the road, the snakes in the woods, or the disease that caused the tumor."
"The sorrow of great and small losses is a river that runs in the underground of all of our lives," Roshi Joan Halifax writes. "When it breaks to the surface, we might feel as though only 'I' know this pain. Yet grief is a...
I continually assert that yoga practice encompasses more than physical fitness. As much as I generally try to avoid admitting it, this does implicitly question whether the use of yoga poses for physical fitness alone can even be considered yoga...
“I want someone on this path with me”
“That’s’ codependency”
I just spent a weekend in New York with a group of people I am happy to call my sangha. A sanhga is a community of meditators. They may not be...
I have this tendency to be overly provocative, sometimes to a fault. I have managed to temper this but, as discussed previously, changing old patterns requires continued attention.
The title of this post is a perfect example. You see, I...
