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Books are my friends. Everyone knows the "Tao Te Ching", "The Little Prince", "Walden: A Year in the Woods", "Leaves of Grass", "Letters to a Young Poet", "The Power of Now",  and "The Old Man and the Sea". But have you ever read the glorious little animal pomes and prayer-like sweetness of the mid-last century cloistered French nun  Carmen de Gasztold? "Prayers from the Ark" or "The Creatures' Choir"? Highly recommended.

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I have been collating my many notebooks and various published anthologies of words of wisdom, maxims and adages this week, for possible use in my new book projects, speeches and Dharma talks. My assistant Kathleen Albanese said she has some good ones from her mother's time,  and grandmother too. "My mom used to say, when one of us kids was in deep doo-doo of some kind: "Don't worry, child, this'll make a good story when everyone gathers at the holidays." More of her thoughts to ponder: ~If you ever need a helping hand remember there are two at the end of your arms; one for helping yourself and the other...

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Ancient wisdom of the East reminds us that all  life is a simply a dream-like dance of appearance and disappearance of all phenomena, and that impermanence rules. But unless you know this directly, from your own experience, it can seem like pretty cold comfort -- especially when times are hard! As Buddhist wisdom for hard times, my late Zen teacher Kobun Chino Roshi used to say, "Falling apart, falling apart, all together falling apart, it can't be helped".What a relief to know that this isn't a bad dream, it's the nature of everything and everyone -- coming together and falling apart, like the elements...

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The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. ~ Albert Einstein

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Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening by Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard, Marco Morelli This is the best book yet to synthesize the work of Ken Wilber into a practical, accessible program. Plus, the lead writer is my great friend and soul brother, Terry Patten. Not to be missed.

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I find that Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the most inspiring of world leaders. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, daughter of one of Burma's founding hero's, leader of the pro-democracy movement in her country, nonviolent activist and a Buddhist meditator; Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Myanmar (formerly Burma), has been under house arrest for 13 out of the last 19 years under the draconian military junta ruling that backward country . Now she is being tried on trumped up charges for a minor incident of giving an American who swam across a lake to her waterside home under the cover of darkness...

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"It seems odd that we spend so much time in schools on such matters as simplifying radicals, learning about the War of 1812 and identifying the parts of speech and so little on the personal quest for meaning. "  --Noddings (1984) I have been thinking and writing lately about what would constitute a truly Higher Education system -- a wisdom-for-life leadership, learning, and empowerment process -- which integrates ones upbringing, schooling, and life experience into a meaningful whole. Higher ed today seems to have become, for the most part, mere vocational training, although jobs in this economy...

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This morning at our Meditation & Psychotherapy Conference in Boston, cosponsored by Harvard Medical School which included 1200 participants, the Dalai Lama of Tibet said:  "Something that seems impossible to alter and transform even in a 100 years can suddenly become very close to you and surprisingly change quite easily, since everything does change sooner or later-- so there's always hope".  "

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I was reflecting upon time, loss and death, the passing of the generations last week as I performed the Jewish unveiling ceremony for my recently deceased mother's gravestone in our family plot in Long Island, New York, next to my father's, aunts' and uncles', and grandparents' too. All things pass. The good news is that, in our nuclear family at least, the generations pass in correct order, and parents don't have to bury children and so forth. The bad news is that life is like a river and time its current, continuously moving on -- forward , if you like, although it seems more cyclical to me personally,...

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I’m excited about this O-naugeration today. In a year of little but bad news, this is a real ray of hope. I have been amazed at how, wherever I go around the country--and even in Europe and Japan, Nepal, and India, my usual beat--the young people are absolutely enthused, inspired, and increasingly engaged,  something I haven’t seen at this near fever pitch since the Sixties.  I’ve been surprised and delighted to see the number of young people—students, mostly—who’ve headed to D.C. for the big events this week. A number of my peers and colleagues have gone too. I’m meditating on this. Obama...

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