Yesterday was my turn to lead the daily meditation so I got to Liberty Plaza around 3:15pm. There were two lines of police barricades all around the park but I was already used to it. I walked around till I found the sanctioned...
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.
A smart brain is useless if your heart is foolish.
We spend a lot of time thinking things through and trying to apply logic to this very illogical world of ours. In our society, intellect is valued over insight. Many...
Family and teachers commonly admonish children to "use their heads"; to think reasonably and sensibly, and solve problems in accordance with reality, not as a reaction to beliefs or fantasies or wishes about how we want reality to...
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?
In order to feel compassion for other people, we have to feel compassion for ourselves. In particular, to care about people who are fearful, angry, jealous, overpowered by addictions of all kinds, arrogant, proud, miserly, selfish, mean, you have...
"...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...
It wasn’t so much the news. Not so much what was happening, but rather what wasn’t happening. Recent headlines have told of a fallen quasi-dictator, riots over a fallen football coach, and the NYPD behaving like stormtroopers in the...
This week ID Project founder Ethan Nicthern interviews David Loy and Michael Stone as they discuss the Occupy Wall Street Movement as it relates to Buddhist Practice and Philosophy. This is the second of a two part interview.
"Just as a prisoner screaming as he’s dragged, twisting behind a horse, the chains of karma drag us down the road of suffering. Repeatedly, we follow the cycles of life, sickness, old age and death. Only your wisdom sword can...
You must examine yourself. Know who you are. Know your body and mind by simply watching. In sitting, in sleeping, in eating, know your limits. Use wisdom. The practice is not to try to achieve anything. Just be mindful of what is. Our...
"When I was quite young, living in Boulder, I was asked to teach a class, and it began. I honestly knew approximately zero at the time, but perhaps that was one approximation more than the next person, I suppose. In any case, it was the...
A question that has long drawn my attention appears at first glance to be quite simple: what is money? I’ve come to the feel that it is a collective thought.
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...
This week ID Project founder Ethan Nicthern interviews David Loy and Michael Stone as they discuss the Occupy Wall Street Movement as it relates to Buddhist Practice and Philosophy. This is the first of a two part interview.
I loved this article, "An Open Letter From Buddhists and Yoga Teachers in Support of the Occupy Movement." this week, if you get a chance check it out, sign it, and pass it around. I couldn’t have written this better...
"...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...
Last week I did not sit meditation.
Not once.
Okay, I just lied.
I led a 5 minute silence before a meeting but in my mind that does not count. Therefore, last week I was a bad girl.
I had the great good fortune to attend a teaching with Venerable Panavatti Karuna, a Buddhist monk ordained in both the Theravada and Mahayana traditions, a former Christian pastor, a Taoist monk and an initiated yogi, who holds a doctorate...
