Author Archives: Tracy Cochran

Here is a bit from The Wisdom of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: A New Translation and Guide by Ravi Ravindra, which I am reviewing for Parabola.    These ancient sutras, which were collected by Patanjali more than two thousand years ago from what was already a long-standing tradition, offer a way out the dark little tunnel ofContinue reading “An Ancient Way Out of Fear and Insecurity”

A few weeks ago, I spoke with Ravi Ravindra about his new translation and guide to the Yoga Sutras.  Among other things, we spoke of what it means to be born to one path and to follow another–and/or  to follow more than one spiritual path.   Ravindra quoted Kipling to sum up how clarifying and reinvigoratingContinue reading “The Tip of the Ice Berg”

A few days into every silent meditation retreat I start feeling like Scheherazade of the Thousand and One Nights.   Married to Persian King Shahryan,  Scheherazade told a captivating tale to the king each night because her life literally depended on it.  Scarred by the infidelity of his first wife, the king had developed theContinue reading “Scheherazade and Eddie”

A while ago,  I wrote that Zen master Dogen taught that  the practice of zazen is like a circle.  Each time we take our seat in meditation we are taking our place in a circle with all others who practice and have practiced, including the ancients and the Buddhas.   A person wrote in back thatContinue reading “Be Like Water!”

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life,” wrote Henry David Thoreau.   It rained on and off all day yesterday here, and  it’s supposed to rain for days to come.   The ground is soft and wet and I intend to get out and digContinue reading “Fronting the Essential Facts”