(Photo: Mari Griffin)
I did not recognize you as fear
Deep vibrating abyssI did not recognize you as fearI did not recognize you as fearBecause your power has the births of many stars in its belly
A friend of mine is a teacher. As an exercise, he asked the people seated before him in class to write down some words that described them. When the papers were handed back, not one of them contained the word “student.”
"I'M HEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!" Startled by the booming voice and clenching our bathrobes, we looked up to see Dennis Rodman march in with his hands in the air.
Where am I not walking the walk?
Dr. Jeffrey Rubin posed this question in the first class of Spiritual Awakening NOT Spiritual Bypassing on Monday night, and inspired me to ask myself.
Sometimes I focus on my successes; when my intention to...
Right or Wise Speech is one of the factors on the Buddha's Eightfold Path, and it includes a warning against harsh speech*. A new study shows the effect of harsh speech in reader comments.
1. Meditation demonstrates that all things are interdependent and constantly changing. Initially, the realization that we’re all in a life situation that is fundamentally groundless may be quite daunting and even depressing. But it’s not...
I was standing on an ordinary street corner in DC when the change started. Lunch in hand, waiting for the cross-walk to change so I could go back to the office and eat, I was remembering something I said at a meeting, which now seemed...
There's a Zen meal chant that says, "72 laborers brought us this food; we should know how it comes to us." If the meal involves a can of Coke, that's a serious understatement.
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Big News: A new study from the University of Toronto claims that meditation makes individuals more politically liberal in their outlook and actions. Although it...
When I first started meditating, I would sit down and be overcome by a waterfall of thoughts. Thoughts about my clients' lives. Thoughts about what to do tomorrow. Thoughts about what to eat. Thoughts about the person sitting in front of me....
Where there is love there is life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
We are on day 21 of a 30-day meditation and yoga challenge inspired by Cyndi Lee, "OMYoga 30." Making the time for meditation practice every day is not so much a challenge for me. What I do have...
Today is March 1. Those of us who took part in Sharon Salzberg’s 28-Day Meditation Challenge are probably wondering how our practice will continue now that the month of February is over. Commitment leads to evaluation. What did we see, and where do...
Right speech, sometimes called Wise or Skillful Speech, is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path to liberation from suffering. ... The importance of speech in ethical conduct is clear, Bikkhu Bodhi says in his guide to...
"When we become lost in desire, we are put firmly into the framework of linear time. We become focused on getting what we do not yet have, or on keeping what we do have. We become oriented toward the future. To be caught in this concept of linear...
"Don't fight the darkness. Don't even worry about the darkness. Turn on the light & the darkness goes. Turn up that light of pure consciousness: Negativity goes.Now you say, 'That sounds so sweet'.It sounds too sweet. But it's a real...
In English-language dharma teachings, we often encounter the key term “renunciation.” We sometimes hear that renunciation is the indispensable foundation of our path of awakening, the quality without which no genuine progress can be made. It’s often...
I captured this photo of a trash can in downtown Brooklyn last year. Since then, I have seen these Love Yourself stickers all over New York City. I even found one with the paper still on and stuck it on the back of my phone. I...
IDP's Fall 2012 class series, "In Search of the Self," explored the many ways we construct ideas about who we are and reviewed several Buddhist theories on how we create a sense of self and why we cling to it. It's a fascinating subject, of course...
