Pronounce a Silent Blessing
"It is forbidden to taste of the pleasures of this world without a blessing." --The Talmud I think that the best way to...
Renewability Makes Something Valuable
In the village, people used to build their houses out of traditional materials, using no iron or lumber or nails, but the houses...
Relationships Make You Conscious, Not Happy
With the acknowledgment and acceptance of the facts also comes a degree of freedom from them. For example, when you know there is...
Reverence Protects Life
As you work toward becoming reverent, your tendencies toward harming others and other forms of life diminish. As you acquire a sense of...
Vulnerability is the Path
Vulnerability isn't good or bad: it's not what we call a dark emotion, nor is it always a light, positive experience....
The Oppressor and the Oppressed Must Both be Liberated
I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the...
What We Need Is Here
Horseback on Sunday morning, harvest over, we taste persimmon and wild grape, sharp sweet of summer's end. In time's maze...
Three Kinds of Laziness
The Buddha described three kinds of laziness. First there is the kind of laziness we all know: we don't want to do anything, and...
The Capacity for Successful Solitude
The capacity to be alone is the capacity to know enough about yourself and who you are, and be comfortable enough with that. That way,...
The Day I Learned The Value of a Smile
My paternal grandmother who raised me had a remarkable influence on how I saw the world and how I reckoned my place in it. She was the...
Beauty of the Mosaic
For as long as I recall having memory, I've found mosaic incredibly mesmerising. Alongside the increasing presence of grey hair on my...
The Delight in Exploring Inner Territory
As long as we cling to the idea that this is "my mind, my own, personal mind," we will have a strong tendency to look as good...