We should not be taken in by the intensity of our latest spiritual epiphany while losing sight of the endless journey yet to be unfolded. I diagnose this seeker’s disease as “premature immaculation”, and it does crop up on this shore today: thinking we are there before we actually are. We may actually have gone far; and yet, there is still far to go.
A spiritual teacher and spiritual friends can be very helpful to keep us going along the great Way of awakening; a clear head and good heart are essential, and can be cultivated and developed; and a regular spiritual practice is absolutely...
A poor man asked the Buddha,"Why am I so poor?"
The Buddha said, "You did not learn to give."
So the poor man said, "But, if I don't have anything to give?"
The Buddha said, "You have a few things:
The Face, which can give a smile;
The Mouth, you can praise or comfort others;
The Heart, it can open up to others;
The Eyes, they can look at the other with the eyes of compassion;
The Body, which can be used to help others."
...
Summer is a great time to sit quietly on your porch, in a park, at the beach, or even just on you front stoop and incorporate a spiritual exercise—a moment of mindfulness, of contemplative sweetness into your busy life.
Breathe, Smile, and Relax Sitting still in a quiet place, bring all of your attention to your body as you fill your lungs and lower belly with one deep, deep breath. . . and then let it out in a long sigh. . . . Ahhhh
If you were truly attentive, your mind would have been clear of all distractions for 10 whole seconds, while your body was nourished with extra oxygen and your...
Maya Angelou was one of my favorite American writers and spiritual elders. I remember hearing her give a rousing keynote at an Omega conference in Florida several years back, saying that she was trying to grow up into a beacon of truth and wisdom to shine light in the world. That’s my kinda gal.
Maya means illusion in Sanskrit, but this goddess was real enough. Her writing, teaching and extensive heart-centered social activism seemed all of a piece, which greatly inspired and informed many of us who strive likewise to be bodhisattvas, spiritual activists, and genuine higher educators. ...
My First Encounter With the Sixteenth Karmapa
Huffington Post April 7, 2014
After I graduated from college in 1971, I had the good fortune to travel overland from London to India. I had celebrated at Woodstock and marched on Washington, but that first Asian pilgrimage was the real turning point of my life. Over time, I would find and meet many -- if not most -- of the saints and enlightened masters (Hindu and Buddhist) of that era.
One day in 1973, in the foothills of the Himalayas at a hillside monastery outside Darjeeling, one of my friends surprised me by asking, "Have you seen your picture...
Only one popular Buddhist teacher has written a book about prayer, and that's
Thich Nhat Hanh. Many Western Buddhists and mindfulness practitioners today seem unaware of the numerous prayerful traditions and practices of Buddhism in the old world. I myself savor the mystic poems, songs, chants, prayers and sacred music practices of Vajrayana Buddhism. Perhaps because Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhism is very inclusive and open to eclecticism, I too feel that way. I wanted to share with you a prayerful poem gifted to me this month, from some Catholic friends.
"As we turn our lives to the crosswalk
of...
Everything is Dharma, in a sense, for the true practitioner and avid seeker. Everything can be seen and taken as teachings, blessings and inspiration-- grist for the spiritual practice mill. There are no unequivocally good or bad, positive or negative things, experiences or people; it is only thinking that makes them seem so. Everything is so subjective. It’s not what happens but what we make of it that makes all the difference in determining our character and karma, our experience, fate, destiny.
I just returned from ten days with my dear old friend and guru-brother Ram Dass, at his home...
As a young child playing hide and seek outside, with my cousins and siblings, in both Brooklyn and suburban Long Island, I learned an early meditation lesson: the more I stopped, and simply tuned in and sensed, directly, in the immediacy of the moment--the more focused and still I got, in body and mind-- the more I saw and could see. And when I was clearer, everything became clearer. This was my youthful introduction to the harmony and oneness available via a heightened, wakeful, present awareness. I can almost see now how mind-reading works, when you utterly still your own body & mind, breath...
