I was born and raised in Bangkok. Then when I was fourteen, my parents sent me to the U.S. for school. When I first arrived, I struggled to learn English and assimilate into American culture. As a teenage girl, I remember desperately wanting to fit in, walking...

Originally from Indonesia, Brother Trời Bảo Tạng (he/him) seems to have an inherent capacity to see the world beyond norms. This perspective is what drove him to become a monastic, what drew him to Zen teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Plum Village tradition—with its activist...

‘You must just be as immovable as an incense burner before a Buddha-image and as unchanging as dried wood resting on cold ashes.’ Kusan Sunim

Whether this election result was what you wanted or didn’t want, or decided not to participate in, beneath the ups and downs of this moment, there’s something under the surface that isn’t affected by the waves. Now, that wasn’t how I felt at 3:45 a.m. when I got up to...

An hour and a half before sunrise on election day, I open the garage door and begin to chant. It has become habit, on my short walk to the yoga shala, to recite an homage to the Buddha and the five precepts in Pali, followed by a melodic invocation of the bodhisattva...

My heart is hurting. A lot. The last time this happened, I was on day five of a weeklong meditation retreat. The confusion, sadness, anger, pain were frighteningly palpable within the clarity of deep practice. It feels like I’m right back there now. My heart is...

Sometimes late at night or on a long walk with a friend, we find ourselves discussing our ideas about how to live and how to act and what is important in life. If we’re studying Buddhism and practicing meditation, we might talk of no-self and emptiness, of patience...

Thich Nhat Hanh, in his 2003 address to congress, says that only deep listening, mindfulness, and gentle communication can remove the wrong perceptions that are the foundation of violence. Distinguished members of Congress, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, it is my...

At a conference on women and Buddhism that took place in spring last year, I was upset because most of the speakers were giving their talks in this serene, beautiful chapel, a place evoking a sense of the divine, a sacred place for the word to be spoken and heard, yet...

One of the largest rituals this country engages in is casting votes, to make our marks, to say something. We may cast a vote, not only for oneself, but, for those who are ill or incarcerated, for those who are illiterate, for those who have lost interest. We do this...