In this special message from Sister Chan Khong, she asks, “Can you hear Mother Earth? In this excerpt from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, we learn of the desperate situation we are in. Please wake up, my children, and see what you are doing. Your atomic bombs have laid waste to billions of precious lives, […]
Lissa Rankin on Impermanence
June 30, 2016 by
I just received this email from Lissa Rankin on impermanence. She talks about how resisting change as a cause for suffering. Resisting change is just like being hit with a second arrow, as the Buddha put it. He said that the first arrow is the one which causes an injury with its unavoidable pain and […]
The Rhythms of Life
June 29, 2016 by
According to Martha Beck, the rhythms of life can be described in two phases, “rest” and “play.” However, we often find ourselves unable to either rest well or play to our hearts’ content. This is because we spend a lot of our work time neither resting nor playing! We don’t enjoy our work, yet, when […]
Teachings on Interbeing
June 28, 2016 by
The teachings on interbeing (the interconnectedness of all things) have been seen on these pages for more than four years now, and a couple of recent documentaries made these teachings very to me. One of these documentaries is The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, which traces the flow of genes and the migration of […]
Meditation and the Science of Human Flourishing
June 14, 2016 by
Meditation and the Science of Human Flourishing was the name of a workshop which took place last Saturday, June 11, 2016 with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Dr. Richie Davidson at Stanford University sponsored by The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) and Tergar, Rimpoche’s meditation community. Richie talked about how he was […]
The Root of All Evil
June 8, 2016 by
Many people think that money is the root of all evil, but the Buddha teaches something totally different in the Mula (or Root) Sutta (Sutra). In this sutra, the Buddha asks, “In what are all phenomena rooted?” and, as in all sutras, he answers his own question. Thanissara (Mary Weinberg), a former nun in the […]
For a Future to be Possible
May 31, 2016 by
The final session of the Earth Holder Retreat was on the theme of “For a Future to be Possible” on Sunday, May 1 at the Deer Park Monastery. The panel discussion was led by Brother Phap Ho (Brother Protection) and included Kristin Barker (founder of One Earth Sangha), Jayna Gieber (director of “People of the […]
The Power of a Smile
May 19, 2016 by
This wordless video demonstrates the power of a smile. In each of the events portrayed in the video, all tensions are eased by the power of a smile. Watch how children play, business men collide and spill the papers, a young woman spills tea on a customer, and an angry man seem prepared to beat […]
The Three Poisons
May 17, 2016 by
The three poisons or the three roots (of suffering) were the subject of Brother Phap Vu‘s dharma talk on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at the Earth Holder Retreat in the Deer Park Monastery. The three poisons are variously translated as shown in the following table (reading down) desire greed attraction hatred ill-will aversion ignorance illusion […]
Garry Shandling was a Buddhist
May 12, 2016 by
I did not know that Garry Shandling was a Buddhist until I read this story on the Lion’s Roar website in an article titled, “He Never Said No” – The inside story of Garry Shandling’s Buddhism. It turns out that Garry Shandling was a friend of Brother Phap Hai, a monk in the Plum Village […]
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