Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to better understand depression, it’s causes, and how it can best be alleviated. It’s not that I’m depressed--in fact I’m happy to report that I’m rarely...
A concern of many new (and old) Buddhist students is the worry that their internal experiences will become dull or lack emotion as they learn greater equanimity and mindfulness. Will I still feel passion? Will I still be...
Photographer Peter Seidler has posted a series of portaits taken before and after meditation practitioners participated in a Dathun, a month long meditation retreat. He wrote about his process and shares several of the images on the...
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...
Blessing (Sanskrit: adhiṣṭhāna, Tibetan: བྱིན་རླབས: byin-rlabs;)
We usually think of blessings as good fortune bestowed on us by a higher power (God Bless You!), a special person like a priest or a rabbi, or sheer luck. It's not...
I talk a lot. I always have. I tried once in the third grade to be shy, because I thought the quiet kids were cool and kinda mysterious, but I failed. I’ve long since accepted that I am a talker, that's just who I am, but lately I’...
In a his post on The Interdependence Project's Blog about Occupy Wall Street, Michael Stone quotes the philosopher Slavoj Žižek, who spoke to the New York Occupiers at Zuccotti Parkon October 9:
Wednesdays I teach Mommy/Baby Yoga class at The 14th Street Y in Manhattan. This particular rainy, wind whipping Wednesday, my core group of devoted moms strolled in with the little ones and we were more philosophical and chatty than usual. I...
I spent ten days in New York and worried for almost the entire time. I worried and the worry multiplied like beads of condensation in a sealed terrarium. When I arrived, I felt tired and I worried about relaxing. I also worried about my homework...
A man stands on a bench in Zuccotti Park on Wall Street and chants a phrase from a meeting last night: “We don't want a higher standard of living, we want a better standard of living.” He’s wearing a crisp navy blue suit and...
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...
I’m just back from teaching a wonderful meditation and writing retreat in the Colorado Rockies this past weekend. The weather conspired to create the ideal setting for turning inward. Snow began to fall as our retreat began and continued to...
Buddhists often refer to "lineage"; the line of people through the ages to whom the Buddhist teachings have passed, beginning with the historical Buddha. For example, the Tibetan Kagyu sect, in which I study,...
With all the buzz about Occupy Wall Street this week, I love even more that the heading on the IDP’s “About Us” page reads: Get Connected. Because We Already Are. The mission, as articulated under this heading, explains that the...
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...
Compassion isn’t just a feeling. In fact, true compassion need not involve any particular emotions at all. Sincere compassionate action can take place when there is no sense of “Me” and “You”, “Us...
