Interbeing with All Life

When I discussed interbeing with all life with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson several years ago, he said, I would say in modern times, (I need to define modern as in the last century).  What you said recent times was 25 years.  In modern times, we have come to learn about ecology.  I’ll use a single […]

The Science of Meditation

While I listened to Rick Hanson‘s talk on The Science of Attention and Mind Training in the Science of Meditation Summit offered last month by Shambhala Mountain Center, I was happy to hear him speak about gamma waves and synchronized firing of neurons. As he answered a question about how does meditation practice or mindfulness […]

The Pale Blue Dot

Last night, I saw a remarkable image of the pale blue dot (planet Earth) as viewed from the Cassini spacecraft during an eclipse of the sun by Saturn. The image was shown on the California Academy of Sciences Planetarium at the Dean Lecture on astronomy by Dr. Carolyn Porco, Cassini Imaging Team Leader from Boulder, […]

The Declaration Of Interdependence

We, the sentient beings of the third planet (earth) from the star commonly known as the “sun”, declare that all existence is in a state of interdependence. The state of interdependence is a state of interbeing, of interconnectedness. We recognize that people, animals, plants and minerals inter-are and share a single dwelling  place on planet earth. […]

The Top Environmental Problems

This quote about the top environmental problems was shared to me by my daughter. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately in conjunction with my work with the Buddhist Climate Action Network and the Earth Holder Sangha. I’ve written about the retreat called The Bells of Mindfulness from Mother Earth led by dharma teachers […]

Climate Impacts are Overwhelming

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported last year that climate impacts are overwhelming – the full report is available online. I am reminded of Thay’s first answer in his March 2012 Q& A interview on Climate Change. He said that, We have to breathe deeply to acknowledge the fact that we humans may […]

What the World Needs Now

What the world needs now is generosity instead of greed, kindness, gratitude and compassion instead of aggression, wisdom instead of delusion, and most of all, unconditional love instead of hatred. These were the conclusions we came to last night at our dharma discussion in the Mindfulness in Healing sangha. The discussion was sparked by the […]

A Quiet Life Stimulates the Creative Mind

This year is the 100th anniversary of the general theory of relativity by Albert Einstein. He was known to be a solitary person who spent most of his time alone. He is know to have said, “The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.” In my opinion, a quiet life does […]

A Message to Our Planet from 1971

In a message to our planet from 1971, the then United Nations Secretary-General U Thant told us, “I believe that mankind is at last aware of the fact that there is a delicate equilibrium of physical and biological phenomena on and around the earth which cannot be thoughtlessly disturbed as we race along the road […]

The Connected Universe

The Connected Universe is a new movie by Malcom Carter. In this movie, we discover the science behind interbeing – the interconnectedness of all things in the Universe. In the trailer to the movie presented here, Malcom Carter says, “The connected universe is a fascinating journey of exploration into the interconnection of all things in […]