Paramita is a Sanskrit word that means “gone to the other shore.” Whenever I read this definition, I imagine myself swimming out to sea, leaving behind what is familiar but limiting in search of a more skillful way of relating to my life.  The six...

At age eleven, I went to a massive, marvelous playground. Part of it was labyrinthine and low-ceilinged, and it was almost meditative to crawl around in there, my eyes on the floor. At one point, though, I realized I was about to bang into another little girl. I...

A few weeks ago, I saw a six-year-old boy whom I’ll call Joseph in the emergency department where I work in western New Mexico. He was brought in by a local foster care service. Before I went in, the temporary guardian accompanying him told me what had happened. The...

About thirty educators, researchers, school founders, publishers, and longtime Buddhist practitioners gathered at Forest Creek Refuge in Oregon this past April to explore a deceptively simple question: What might Buddhist education for children mean in the...

In the Samyutta Nikaya, the Linked Discourses of the Buddha, we meet the awakened nun Venerable Vajira. One afternoon, she went to the Dark Forest to meditate, and there she was approached by the trickster Mara, the personification of all the obstacles to...

My parents were devoted, hardworking people and generous providers. There was little I wanted, within reason, that they didn’t find a way to give. And yet, growing up, there was something they could not offer—not because they didn’t love me, but because they didn’t...