“Ah! There is Rima, the bodhisattva!” Bob called out with unmistakable excitement as he spotted me standing among hundreds of people. We had gathered at Tibet House in New York to hear his lecture, where I was in the audience with my husband. “Bodhisattva, huh?” my...

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” ~Mark Twain It started with a clogged kitchen drain. Or maybe the drain was where everything else I’d been carrying finally surfaced. Regardless, the water wasn’t moving. It was so bad that some of...

Trigger Warning: This story mentions serious illness, stroke, and depression. Please read with care. Rojandree's life took a sudden turn when she was diagnosed with neuropsychiatric lupus in August 2025, followed by a stroke in September. At that time, she could not...

‘Lot of money worries in the world today — may all beings find their inner treasure and be well and happy.’ Everyday Buddhism

‘Should they come to mind, reflect on how success and failure come and go.’ Words of my Perfect Teacher

This essay was written five days before the Madison, WI police killing of Corey Ruiz and a week before the Austin, TX police killing of unarmed Anthoneil Williams II. I am a Black mother to a Black child in the U.S. The deaths of teenagers Nolan Xavier Wells and...

‘Only one familiar with the observation of mind can really understand Dhamma.’ Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

These days, Buddhism is a familiar presence in the American conversation about wellbeing, invoked in wellness culture, clinical research, and popular media as a path toward calmer minds and healthier bodies. But as a scholar who has long focused on “Buddhist medicine”...

During the 2020 fires in southern Oregon, I bought an air purifier. I set it up, turned it on, and felt better. It ran for months. When I finally opened it to change the filter, the plastic wrap was still on. There was one small tear, and under the tear a black dot —...

“To tie your worth to achievements is a recipe for suffering.” ~Brad Bizjack Children don’t just learn mathematics, science, and languages in school. They also learn what success feels like, what failure means, who they believe they are, and sometimes, whether they...