Managing stress is a difficult problem for most people. They either succumb to it and panic (like I did on my Ph. D. orals at the University of Chicago) or they use it as a trigger to harness their full capacity to conquer their situation (like I did when I first got cancer in 1997). […]
True Love Is Made Of Understanding
April 13, 2016 by
My teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, is constantly reinforcing the experience that true love is make of understanding. This teaching is simple and profound. If we don’t understand our beloved, how can there be true love? We must develop the willingness and capacity to understand the person we love. True love requires us to […]
A Brown Robe, a Brown Coat
April 12, 2016 by
“A Brown Robe, a Brown Coat” is a poem by my dharma brother and fellow Order of Interbeing (OI) member, Mike McMahon. It was posted on the OI listserv yesterday and many brothers and sisters had wonderful things to say about it. A Brown Robe, a Brown Coat I was a person in the world. […]
The Right Amount of Stress
April 7, 2016 by
The right amount of stress in any given situation is called eustress and an overwhelming amount of is called distress. It is possible to generate eustress in situations where we put ourselves out, stretch our limits, and reach out of our comfort zone. On the other hand, distress can be very harmful to our immune […]
Hope, Faith and Love
April 6, 2016 by
This lovely poem on the subject of hope, faith and love came to me from Lama Surya Das and I am truly grateful. It embeds some wonderful teachings about what we can accomplish in our lives, what is true and beautiful and how we are interdependent on others for our happiness. Nothing worth doing is […]
Guided Meditation for Loving Kindness
April 5, 2016 by
This guided meditation for loving kindness was created by Michael Sealey and is quite good for learning how to give and receive loving kindness, compassion, happiness, abundance and healing and eliminating stress and anxiety. Michael begins with a soothing body scan that takes about 7 minutes. Then he asks us to bring into mind an […]
Everything Happens by Itself
March 31, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This lovely poem teaches us that Everything happens by itself. The poem is by Lama Gendun Rinpoche and it came in an email from Lama Surya Das. It reminds me of a song we sing at retreats and sangha gatherings called ” Make use of this spaciousness, this freedom and natural ease. Don’t search any […]
How to Practice Inclusiveness
March 31, 2016 by
Today’s lesson is on how to practice inclusiveness is also from the 21-day Happiness Challenge from Luminita Saviuc, also known as the Purpose Ferry. Our world today is filled with different groups, religions, races, people with a different sexual orientation, and many other categories that keep us separate. When we practice inclusiveness, we allow others […]
Can mindfulness assist in a structural transformation of society? – YouTube
March 30, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Empty of What?
March 30, 2016 by
When Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh talks about the Buddhist concept of emptiness, he always asks the question, “Empty of what?” Much of the time the answer is “Empty of a separate existence.” This means that nothing exists in isolation without interaction with everything else. If something did, we would never be able to access […]
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