Golden Hour

The Buddha encouraged us to meditate in the forest in the early morning. We are still (mostly) Earthbound creatures, folded into the rhythms of the Earth. But how often do you experience the sunrise, as a creature of the Earth, with nothing else to do but feel the air...

Spiritual Bypass

One of our sangha members recently brought up the term spiritual bypass, so it may be a good time to renew our awareness of what it points to in practice. We can fall into spiritual bypass when we turn away from our experience by thinking we “should” rise above it...

Affirming Faith in Mind

There’s a line from Affirming Faith in Mind that says, “When doubts arise, simply say, “not two.”  What kind of doubts? Well, our lives bring us to many impasses, situations that feel impossible to find our way through. Emotions that are like a mountain in our way. We...

Awaken for the Benefit of All Beings

Living according to the Bodhisattva Vow, to awaken for the benefit of all beings, is an endlessly demanding and mysterious undertaking. We may understand the meaning of this vow in such a way that it seems out of proportion with our small, immediate life. When there...

“The self is made of non-self elements.”

“The self is made of non-self elements.” This is how Thich Nhat Hanh expresses the interdependence teaching of Buddhism. “The self is made of non-self elements.” This applies not only to the “small self”, but to the larger all-inclusive self experienced in the flow of...