At moments, I wished I picked a different film. The setting was so serene, a tiny hermitage on a raft floating in a lake in a deep valley in the Korean wilderness, a boy monk following a wise old monk through his gentle rounds. But animal cruelty was on the way. And worse to come.…
Recently I was asked to talk about the Fifth Dalai Lama of Tibet, and about power in Buddhism, two subjects I know very little about, and yet I happily agreed. Intention comes from a Latin root that means to stretch, and there was stretching to be done here for sure. I did research, learning about the…
I never tire of remembering that “courage” comes from French and Latin words for heart. We encourage each other to get out of our lonely, individualist heads and remember our hearts, which are so much bigger than we think. This year, at a retreat on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, I had the honor of listening…
Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the day when the North Pole is tilted farthest from the sun. Ancient people observed this day, watching the stars and the shortening days, patiently abiding and taking note until one day…it changed. They learned that the darkest day is followed by a little more light.…
Yesterday, a group of us sat an afternoon retreat. It happened to be the first day of Hanukkah, and in a sense sitting down to turn our attention inward is a way of rededicating the temple of the body and heart. It is usually under the control of outside forces, worshipping and appeasing all kinds…
“Today we have gathered and see that the cycles of life continue.” The Mohawk Thanksgiving greeting to the world is a spectacular act of mindfulness. They gather together to notice and honor the living world around them. They offer thanks to the People, to Mother Earth and all her plants and herbs and creatures, to…
