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."
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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...
Last month I was in Nepal at my dear lama friend’s mountaintop monastery, Druk Amitabha Gompa, overlooking the Kathmandu Valley. His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa was giving a series of teachings interspersed with special prayers and pujas, chants and rituals, dedicated for various purposes. I was seated near HH onstage in a small row of red-robed lamas, when suddenly – amidst it all, the pomp and circumstance, the deep beats of the giant drum, the Tibetan long horns, the rattle of hand rums and the cacophony of 800 people chanting together-- I realized that if I only released my resistance--...
It’s freezing (and snowy) here in New England! But it’s good to be home from my fruitful pilgrimage to India & Nepal last month. I happily sat beneath the Bodhi Tree every day, and watched it grow while the leaves occasionally fell—and hordes of pilgrims and tourists passed around and through it all—the head monks of Buddhist countries and the homeless and beggars of Bihar, the poorest state in India… on The Champs Elysees of Buddhist pilgrimage places. I was so impressed by the HH the 17th Karmapa in person, in his room at the Tergar Monastery, which Mingyur Tulku built for him in Bodhgaya....
Thanksgiving is always for me a time of reflection, how it’s never too late to start again or to turn over the garden and refresh the spirit(ual life). It’s also a time to refocus on all I have to be grateful for; the large and small blessings in my life and the lives of those around me, past and present. My Metta practice reminds me daily to perform acts of loving kindness and wish others well. This can be applied at every encounter, and is the discreet Bodhisattva’s way of blessing and cherishing every single sentient being, day to day, moment to moment, whoever you may encounter along...
