Tibetan Buddhist monk and author, Matthieu Ricard, was visiting his home town in Aix-les-Bains, in France, for a conference when the Paris attacks occurred last week. Ricard, a scientist who holds a PhD in molecular genetics, has written and...
“Wounds still fresh, [my leg] isn’t quite ready to bear my weight. I typically walk with a brisk pace, but today my stride is necessarily deliberate…” —Jamie Zimmerman
To be born on this earth is to have the whole thing. From the beginning there are precise distinctions between things, but the whole thing is yourself. That is how it started. When we become deeply involved in precise discrimination between things...
One of the benefits of meditation is that you become less reactive. You cultivate the ability to rest in a calm, clear space so that you can choose how to respond rather than habitually hitting back.
Eric Ripert, chef and owner of Le Bernadin, a famous NYC Michelin-rated restaurant, said recently:
I have applied good principles of Buddhism with the employees of Le Bernardin . . . [and] in the way of having more simplistic presentations than...
Laurie Anderson and her deceased husband, Lou Reed, were both students of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Yongey Mingur Rinpoche. IDP Blog Writer, Nancy Thompson wrote a wonderful post here, describing how they used their Buddhist practice...
In our culture, we place a high emphasis on intellectual learning. Yet our personal growth seems to depend on how we translate what we read and hear into some deeper, possibly wordless understanding. Even Suzuki Roshi once said about his own (...
It has never been more difficult to live in the moment. Many of us have lives so full of activities that we can hardly catch our breaths. We work long hours, sometimes on weekends, and have hectic lives at home. When we do get a free minute, our...
The person I call “Bernie” consists of many parts—limbs, organs, tissues, bones, and cells. If my right hand is gashed, my entire body will spring into action. My brain will think of ways to get care for my injured hand. My feet will take me to the...
In southern Arizona, where I live, many people think that it’s illegal to give exhausted desert travelers water, food, and shelter. Go ahead and re-read that first sentence.
Headspace received $30 million in funding this week to expand their services. In one press release, they were described as a "leading digital health and wellness media brand", though most of us know Headspace as a mindfulness app, and...
How do you love someone who is scared and who scares you?
I was reminded of this question, posed by Tsoknyi Rinpoche in his book "Open Heart, Open Mind," this week as I watched the Internet react to what we might term "difficult people" in our metta...
Back in June, at the beginning of the summer, IDP decided to offer a weekly Metta/Lovingkindness Meditation practice, on Fridays from 6-7pm. When planning the offering, I wondered if anyone would attend - sometimes it's quiet during the summer,...
It seems like everyday there's another news story on the benefits of meditation, and how meditation causes physical changes to the brain. But what do the changes signify? Harvard neuroscientist Sara Lazar explains in an article in Tech...
Philadelphia -- long known as the City of Brotherly Love but more (in)famous recently as the city that destroyed a robot that had traveled safely throughout Canada and parts of Europe -- will hold a Day of Kindness on Oct. 27 to honor the...
Throughout my life, I’ve always been viewed as the “selfless” one. The “people pleaser.” The “highly empathetic one,” the “ridiculously sensitive one,” the one who wears her heart on her sleeve and wants to love everyone with every microscopic ounce...
Saddled with backpacks, duffle bags, and pillows, the teens shuffle up to the table one by one to register for their weeklong meditation retreat. Their eyes flicker with hope and fear as they alternately scan their peers and stare at the floor,...
Very early tomorrow I will be getting on a plane and heading off to a fairly remote retreat center in Colorado. Very early. The first flight leaves at 5 a.m., which means leaving the house around 2:30 a.m. to allow for check-in and security and all...
Although many believe meditation means sitting motionless in a quiet room, it's important to remember that meditation can be done anytime, anywhere. Metta meditation is particularly easy to do in noisy and crowded urban areas, and teachers...
The Wall Street Journal has an article this week on the latest research study about lovingkindness meditation. Researchers studied participants of a seven-week LKM meditation program. They report that:
In personal situations, sometimes I feel very strongly that I'm right and you're wrong. It's very hard for me to see that you have your own point of view, that you don't mean me any harm, and that your needs and concerns are as valid as mine. ...
