On a September day when I was in my forties, I lay in a Tokyo hospital, my joints aching and my skin burning hot. The routine of temperature-taking, breakfast, and doctors’ rounds hadn’t started yet, so the room was silent except for the beeping of monitors and an...

I create sculptural paintings rooted in the ancient traditions of Japanese paper-folding and ink-painting. They are born of a deep human need for connection and intimate contemplation. I invite the viewer to come closer, slow down, and explore.  My studies in...

Six months ago, on a blistery winter morning, I sat across from my doctor for my annual visit. After a few minutes catching up about our families and work, he looked at his computer and began asking me a series of questions: “In the last two weeks, have you felt down...

When Nguyen Xuan Bao was born one hundred years ago in the ancient Vietnamese capital of Hue, his homeland was under French colonial rule. Despite the rise of a Eurocentric Catholic elite and the increasing constraints placed on Buddhist institutions and culture,...

Dreams of a White Snow Lion: The Remarkable Life, Vision, and Deeds of the Dalai Lama (Shambhala) by Mariateresa Bianca and Sherab Dhargye—running well over six hundred pages—is the definitive biography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Based on the biography written in...

One of our tenants hasn’t paid his rent for more than six months. There has been violence and property damage to his unit. The police have been called. The other tenants have told us they don’t feel safe around him.  He’s one of the residents at The Grove, the...

I entered what sociologists call the sandwich generation—caring for my teenager and my aging parents simultaneously, while tending to all the rest of it: my marriage, a demanding job, a large extended family, friendships, dogs, my home, not to mention my own needs and...

My friend Omar grew up surfing here in South Orange County. He’d sworn off surfboards long ago in favor of bodysurfing, a purer form of wave-riding, to his mind—nothing between you and the sea. I wanted to learn, and he took pity on this Toledo transplant. After...

Right effort is the most underappreciated factor on the Buddha’s path to enlightenment. I’ve heard countless Buddhist teachers mention it and then hurry on to the more familiar and photogenic practices—mindfulness, concentration, maybe a few reverent mentions of...

After my first child was born, I fell into an exhausted sleep only to have a nightmare: I was on the deck of a ship holding my new baby. The sea was heaving so hard that the ship pitched forward and almost rolled into the water, teeming with sharks. Terrified of...