I traveled to Costa Rica, where I was scheduled to teach a retreat at Blue Spirit. I went two weeks early to have some personal retreat time in a tiny fishing village called San Juanillo, not far from the Buddhist teacher Lama Tsultrim Allione’s house. I’d planned...

I recently offered an all-day program on mindful leadership to twenty Black public administrators. They work on the front lines of life-threatening situations, managing essential services such as food, health care, and housing for underserved and low-income...

Jungian psychologist and Zen teacher John Tarrant recounts the Buddha’s life in his colorful new book The Story of the Buddha (Shambhala Publications). In this beautiful tome, which includes a rich collection of traditional Chinese and Japanese illustrations, the...

A few years ago, a parent asked me to teach meditation to a group of mothers and their kids. I agreed, confident that I could replicate the children’s class I taught at the monastery where I lived. My plan was simple: I’d give this group of twenty or so kids and their...

An experiment to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s moral principles in these immoral times? It was an idea that seemed crazy and implausible, yet I took it on anyway.  Why Gandhi? Why me? Why now? Let me explain. By the spring of 2019, I had hit a wall. Spiraling into a dark...

I’m ushered into a small, crowded shrine room where there’s an abundance of offerings, Buddha statues, and images of Buddhism’s first nun, Mahaprajapati Gautami. I’m here to meet Bhikkhuni Dhammawati Guruma, the legendary ninety-year-old nun who’s widely credited with...