So much of our suffering—as individuals and as a society—is caused by fear. In fact, according to Buddhism, fear is at the very root of ego and samsara. Four outstanding Buddhist teachers discuss the vital practice of working with our fears. Starting on the Path of Fear and Fearlessness By Judith Lief It helps to explore how we can work with fear from the point of view of [...]
The Art of Losing
Novelist Ruth L. Ozeki's touching memoir of life in a Japanese-American family is also a profound meditation on love, stories, and the difference between losing and letting go. Last year, I was asked to give a talk at the annual donor-appreciation dinner for the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco. I’m a great admirer of the Hospice Project’s work, so I accepted without [...]
Living in the Divine Abodes
Heaven is nowhere else but right here on this earth, when we live with friendliness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In Buddhism, these benevolent states of mind are called the divine abodes, and in this excerpt from her new book, Happiness Is an Inside Job, Sylvia Boorstein tells us some surprising stories about how they can be practiced. Brahmaviharas is the Buddhist [...]
The Only Choice is Kindness
“Life is so difficult, how can we be anything but kind”—it was these words that inspired Sylvia Boorstein to follow the Buddhist path. Steve Silberman talks with her about the challenges of life, from a rough childhood to a post-partum depression, that helped her become such a beloved teacher—and example—of Buddhist virtues. Sylvia Boorstein's writing room—a solarium at the [...]
An Eye for the Sacred
Photographer Lynn Davis’ contemplative approach uniquely captures the power, mystery, and sacredness of the world’s ancient monuments. David Swick talks with Davis about her personal, spiritual, and artistic journey. How can we, as modern people, make a genuine connection with the beauty of the ancient world? Lynn Davis faces that challenge each time she visits one of the [...]
Prince of the Ascetics
Mahanama watched and waited, sure the brilliant young ascetic named Siddhartha would eventually make a mistake. But when it finally came, imagines Charles Johnson in this short story, it was the very moment Siddhartha became the Buddha. Once upon a time, my companions and I lived in the forest near the village of Uruvela on the banks of the Nairanjana River. We were known far [...]
The More Things Change
After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion By Robert Wuthnow Princeton University Press, 2007; 320 pp.; $29.95 (cloth) As a thirty-something white middle-class North American male, I've been hearing about myself for a long time. Douglas Coupland wrote a novel about me in 1991, calling me “Generation X” and giving [...]
Books in Brief January 2008
Psychotherapy Without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective By Mark Epstein, M.D Yale University Press, 2007; 261 pp.; $25 (cloth) Mark Epstein, a Harvard-trained physician, studied Buddhism before he studied psychiatry, and he has been a pioneer in articulating Buddhist concepts to the Western medical community and pointing out the common ground between Buddhist and Western [...]
More Than Just This Body
Rodney Yee, one of the biggest names in yoga today, was a dancer with the Oakland Ballet when he decided yoga would probably help his flexibility. Today he teaches yoga workshops across the globe, has been featured in more than twenty instructional videos, and has co-authored two books, Yoga: The Poetry of the Body and Moving Toward Balance. Here Yee offers his thoughts on the [...]