Tell us about your debut novel, Trip. How did this story come to you? I just was going to write about death. I wanted to write about something that I think is true, but write about it as fiction. Then there was this autism diagnosis in my family that crashed in and...

“When you think of napa cabbage, don’t just see it as a vegetable, but consider as well that it will become a part of your body and your self…. This means that it should be handled with the same care and delicacy as if it were your own body. If you make kimchi with...

I am a spiritual care provider, also known as staff chaplain, at a large hospital complex in Canada. Chaplaincy began as a Christian calling, but spiritual care today is a multifaith proposition and as slippery as a bar of soap. I’m a Buddhist and most of my patients...

I was asked to write an article sharing my experience of living with Mild Cognitive Impairment, due to Alzheimer’s disease. After two weeks of working on this assignment, I thought that the final draft was complete. Then I realized it wasn’t, and that my process of...

With generosity as your guide, caregiving unfolds as a spiritual path. While material generosity—helping with  money and  objects—is wonderful, direct caregiving provides the opportunity to offer the deepest kind of generosity: protection from fear. When loved ones...

On the altar in our zendo, two nearly identical buddha statues sit facing one another. Their faces are calm and open. Their robes fall low, exposing their chests—heart to heart. Painted across their backs and shoulders are scenes from the natural world: trees, birds,...

Andrea Miller: Are there any rituals or practices in your tradition that you think people of all traditions could benefit from? S. B. Rodriguez-Plate: All of them! Whenever I participate in rituals and traditions from groups I haven’t been involved with before, I...

When I was first introduced to mindfulness meditation, the teacher said that there was “nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nothing to change or fix.” As I sat on my cushion that day, trying hard to be mindful, that instruction struck me as a giant contradiction. Wasn’t...

Mindfulness has begun to permeate Western culture, and, as expected in a capitalist society, it has become trivialized and commodified. You can now find hordes of “mindfulness products,” ranging from mindfulness coloring books to an “in-depth planner that will help...

“Travel far enough, you meet yourself,” the author David Mitchell writes in his novel Cloud Atlas. I’m inclined to agree. Discovering lands and cultures hitherto unknown to me draws out aspects of myself I never knew existed. The same could be said of my Buddhist...