I suppose I could plausibly say that I am one of the poster children for "Real Happiness." When Shambhala Sun wrote their featured piece last year on Sharon Salzberg's celebrated new book, my photo was right smack up there near the beginning...
When I was seven years old, my First Grade teacher asked everyone to draw what they wanted to be when they grew up. I remember walking around my classroom, learning all about my classmates’ long-term aspirations. Not surprisingly for this Manhattan...
I went on a few dates recently, and after each I spun a web of expectation and fantasy in my head. One man was a psychologist, and I imagined (after two dates) that we would marry, and teach couples' workshops together, and live in Park Slope...
Hi gang:
Last week a question was raised RE Dalai Lama and Marxism. Since this is the activist group I would like to respond because I lived in a socialist (communist) county during my early days.
There’s that silly argument about disappointment that goes something like this: since you don’t live in a hut, and you’re not a slave, and you’re not starving, then you have no right to be disappointed. It’s silly because it doesn’t...
"Our most fundamental sense of well-being is derived from the conscious experience of belonging. Relatedness is essential to survival."
Tara Brach
We get older in illogical increments. Birthdays pass and pass, but there are some years,...
"I just did something really stupid." "If I weren't always impatient, I'd be a better person." "It was my fault, I screwed it up again." "I should pay attention and not make so many mistakes." "That was a dumb thing to do."...
Trying to find a Buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. Space has a name but no form. It’s not something you can pick up or put down. And you certainly can’t grab if. Beyond mind you’ll never see a Buddha. The Buddha is a product of...
Last year, I attended a teaching by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, (thanks IDP!), on Interdependency at Tibet House. To introduce the subject, he spoke about the importance of asking the right questions, and mentioned that...
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 (...
Wanting to be in love is natural to the human experience. We all want to love. We love love. However, its highs are dizzying, its lows traumatic enough that we want to rid them from our memory. It almost seems counterintuitive to try to reach...
A “friend” in modern times has a two-tiered meaning: the first being the traditional “one attached to another by affection,” the second being, “one connected via soc
For many of us, simply caring for ourselves is a counterintuitive and confusing process. We may equate kindness with material goods, and so buy ourselves clothes or goods to quench dissatisfaction; or we might believe an indulgence will make...
For most of us, an act of surrender means to be defeated, to give up, to lose, to fail. War movies depict defeated soldiers with raised arms, desperately and fearfully shouting "I surrender" to their
enemies, forlornly giving up any hope of...
There’s this amazing and pure potentiality that lies In the midst of our confusion and turmoil. Not knowing is not our enemy but our salvation. Having all of the answers all of the time leaves us with very little. Being clueless and aware of how...
We give up what makes us feel bad about ourselves, at least in retrospect, and take on what makes us feel good about ourselves. Practicing the precepts is said to result in the bliss of blameless.
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. – Buddha
