Richard Rosen, Larry Rosenberg, Edward Espe Brown, and Gaylon Ferguson compare breath practices in yoga and three schools of Buddhism—Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism. Exhale and Hold Richard Rosen on the Breath in Yoga American yoga students have been fascinated with asana, the physical "postures" taught in American yoga classes for the last fifty years. Yet [...]
There Is No Blame
“There are no human enemies,” says Sylvia Boorstein, “only confused people needing help.” The instinctive, immediate response to our own fear is assigning blame to its presumed source. Blame is probably an adaptive response to situations of immediate physical jeopardy in which there is no time for reflection. Even in situations where there is no immediate peril, directing [...]
How To Live a Genuine Life
Ezra Bayda says the essence of our practice involves cultivating awareness of our subtle addictions to comfort, to self-judgement, to our believed thoughts, our identities, and our fears. We'll always be conditioned beings living in a conditioned world. But we can learn to see the clouds of conditioning as just clouds in the context of the sky. To do this we need the precision [...]
A Healthy Sense of Self
“As we learn to abide peacefully,” says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, “we become familiar with a healthy sense of self. Like the Buddha, we become strong, caring, clear-minded individuals in harmony with ourselves and our environment." In his journey toward enlightenment, the Buddha saw that human existence is characterized by three qualities: impermanence, suffering and [...]
Adventures in Breathing
Traveling the breath, Zen priest and yoga teacher Edward Espe Brown has found himself in some unexpected places. When I began practicing awareness of the breath, I had no idea of the adventures that were in store, the strange and wondrous journeys that would unfold. Though I had envisioned scenic pictures of holy sites, I kept ending up in strange, out-of-the-way places: parts [...]
Yoga Chic and the First Noble Truth
Yoga and meditation, says Anne Cushman, are ultimately about turning our eyes away from the airbrushed images of the outside world and looking deep within our own hearts. My husband recently returned from a business trip with a souvenir for me: a recent issue of Australian Vogue that he had picked up in an airport. On the cover, a model in a satin jumpsuit is lying on her [...]
Savasana
Tara Bray sets out to uncover the origin and meaning of savasana--corpse pose--and meditates on her life as a young Southern girl who lost her mother too early. Savasana. Which translates into "corpse pose." Dead still. This is the final posture. Practice your yoga, then lie flat on the floor and die to what you've done, feet falling open, hands turned palms up. B.K.S. [...]
In Engaged Buddhism, Peace Begins with You
Thich Nhat Hanh, who originated Engaged Buddhism, in an interview with John Malkin. I met with Thich Nhat Hanh recently at the Kim Son Monastery in Northern California. I was happy to be seated on a zafu drinking tea with him, but I was also glad when he motioned with a simple gesture towards the page of questions sitting at my side: otherwise the lunch bell might have sounded [...]
Two Roads Diverged
Four experts, Stephen Cope, Victoria Austin, Richard Freeman, Jill Satterfield, on combining yoga and Buddhism. Stephen Cope Stephen Cope, psychotherapist and author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self, started sitting meditation every evening at the Boston Dharmadhatu around the corner from his house when he was in graduate school. His life took a different turn, though, [...]
Lost Letters
What emails make up for in speed, they lose in sensuality. Barry Boyce on the lost art of letter writing. Every day when I come home from the office, I ritually check the mail table, which in spite of all our best efforts at organization, overflows with statements, catalogues, flyers, promotions, magazines, notices and pleadings. But nary a letter do I find. For quite a few [...]