“Rule your mind or it will rule you.” ~Buddha Some mornings I wake before dawn and lie still, listening for signs that the house is awake. A cough down the hallway. The sound of a drawer opening. Water running softly in the kitchen sink. My mother is ninety-seven...

‘Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.’ Bodhidharma

‘Sunyatā: The born — the temporal — and the unborn — the timeless the truth of enlightenment — of the Buddha's own discourses.’ Lucid Exposition of the Middle Way

‘Becoming and Nirvana — neither of these is existent; the complete understanding of becoming may be called Nirvana.’ Arya Nagarjuna

Buddhism is about liberation from suffering and sympathetic joy for all, so it makes perfect sense that Buddhists of all backgrounds would support a holiday celebrating freedom from bondage and the joy that comes with being free. For centuries, beginning in 1865, two...