Learning to 'Presence'
When any of us acts in a state of fear or anxiety, our actions are likely to revert to what is most habitual: our most instinctual...
What is Goodness?
The question will be asked, "What is goodness? What does our moral nature mean?" My answer is that when a man...
Daily Life of Art
Since the inception of the human species and until only decades ago, daily life was infused with art making. We crafted our own tools,...
Neighbors Are Our Practice
Meditation is only one of the many qualities that is emphasized. It's a very important one because we have to understand our mind, and we...
We Have Forgotten Sabbath
A "successful" life has become a violent enterprise. We make war on our own bodies, pushing them beyond their limits; war...
What Eugene Taught Me
When I first met Eugene, he had been a peer mediator for several years in his South Bronx high school. Once, when he was asked by...
The Lovely State of Observation
There are two parts of life. Motion and motionlessness. Movement is one part of life but to be in a state of...
The Interplay of Awareness, Presence and Compassion
Many Masters have said: "Urge on the horse of awareness with the whip of presence!" And, in fact, if awareness is not...
If Sameness Is A Demand We Make
When I lived in Hawaii, if the temperature dropped to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, we felt we had been hit with serious winter. In...
Where Skillfullness and Clarity Meet
We have become very skillful in dealing with our daily life; skillful, in the sense of being clever in applying a great deal of knowledge...
Being Judicious, not Judgmental
One of the most difficult but necessary skills we need to develop as meditators is learning how to be judicious without being judgmental....
Beyond Endings
Endings seem to lie in wait. Absorbed in our experience we forget that an ending might be approaching. Consequently, when the ending...