Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is famous for saying, “We are here to awaken to the illusion of our separateness.” What exactly does this mean? In my way of contemplating this teaching, I think of the following with Lissa Rankin which I received this morning: Dear Jerome, What if there is no “right” or “wrong?” […]
A Song For All Beings
March 3, 2017 by
Last Saturday night, I attended a performance of A Song For All Beings to a packed house. Composed and produced by Jennifer Berezan and friends, A Song For All Beings is based on the Buddhist practice of metta and the four immeasurable minds or Brahma Viharas (divine abodes) of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and […]
What is a Hero?
February 22, 2017 by
What is a hero? Do you really know? Is it someone strong and vibrant who goes off and slays your enemies and upholds your friends? Or is it a football quarterback who wins the Super Bows in the last second with his “hail Mary” throw? Christoper McDougall doesn’t think it is any of these. […]
Attaining Enlightenment
February 14, 2017 by
Attaining enlightenment seems to be what we are all looking for when we diligently practice mindful meditation every day. I know, from personal experience, that this can be a very difficult task. When I was 19, I had three transformative experiences that shaped my life. I did not know what theses were experiences were until […]
Global Day of Prayer
February 6, 2017 by
An invitation to participate in a GLOBAL DAY OF PRAYER Sunday, February 12 – 10 AM EST Aware of the suffering and serious division that is being created in the US and around the world, by opposing views and lack of understanding, we will be observing a Global Day of Prayer on Sunday, February 12. […]
Man is Not the Enemy
January 20, 2017 by
With lots of unrest in the world and in the United States about the inauguration we have to remember that man is not the enemy. So who or what is the enemy? I would say that greed, aggression and delusion are the enemy – the three poisons taught by the Buddha. For example, in Tanzania, […]
Prayer of the Mothers
January 10, 2017 by
The song “Prayer of the Mothers”, was born as a result of an alliance made between singer-songwriter Yael Deckelbaum, and a group of courageous women, leading the movement of “Women Wage Peace”. The movement arose on summer 2014 during the escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, and the military operation “Tzuk Eitan”. On […]
Christmas Offerings
December 24, 2016 by
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah I grew up in a conservative Jewish family in St. Louis, but Christmas offerings were all around. Like the Christians in our neighbor, my father decorated the house with Hanukah adornments and we had at least one gift for each of the eight nights of Hanukah. We lite the candles, […]
Reverence for Life
December 1, 2016 by
Reverence for Life is the first of the Five Mindfulness Trainings authored by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (known as “Thay” by his followers.) In the time of the Buddha it was known as the first precept and, in fact, at that time, all of the precepts were simple statements like, “Not to kill,” “Not […]
Everything Changes
November 1, 2016 by
“Everything changes,” says the law of impermanence – one of the major insights of the Buddha. Nothing stays the same, no matter how much we desire it. There is no escaping the fact that everything changes, just like the weather, the tides, the leaves, and other physical phenomena. As summer flows into winter through the […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.