‘It's sometimes easy to confuse concentration for awareness.’ Buddhist meditation

On Monday I was honored to attend a gathering to mourn the passing and celebrate the life of a great American bodhisattva. Robert Thurman died on June 16 at his home in Woodstock, New York at the age of 84. He was probably the preeminent American Buddhist of our...

My mountain of a dog, Monty, is bouncing around the foyer, pawing at the door, whinnying and whining like a racehorse straining at the bit. We’ve just adopted this big guy—ninety-five pounds of pure strength and sweetness—and he’s eager to muscle his way past my legs...

When I was a child, I found a secret place in the bayberry bushes. In the summers my family floated free from the known world—the world that was measured by carpools and sidewalks—and went to the seashore. It was lonely for me there; I felt alone in my separate self,...

Soon after moonrise, Venus glistens awake to the southwest. An oil lamp is set aflame, a dim reading lamp is tugged to light. Prostrating on all fours, I touch my forehead to the cold oak floor. I stand, adjust a white chunni, or scarf, over my temples, and rest my...

As the Uganda Buddhist Centre (UBC) marks its 20th anniversary this year, a group of Buddhist teachers and supporters has organized to help the center secure a piece of land they say could determine its future — and protect a fragile ecosystem on the shores of Lake...

The dancers weave a graceful grapevine step, holding objects of enjoyment mounted on colorful ceremonial scarves — musical instruments, flowers, perfume. Wearing long, silk, Tibetan gowns in bright hues, we circle the ritual mandala in Tara Mandala’s prayer hall in a...

“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle.”—Fred Rogers This year, August 31st marks twenty-five years since the last episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood aired. Growing up outside of the United States, I wasn’t exposed to Mister...

On the morning of August 26th, a glacier gave way above Kyirong, on the Tibetan side of the border. The water and debris tore down through Rasuwa, then Nuwakot, taking villages, bridges, and hydropower stations with it, down the Bhote Koshi and into the Trishuli. As...