A teaching by Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara. A group of twelve of us lived on the streets in Lower Manhattan for four days, practicing meditation and experiencing how it is to survive without money or cellphones. It was a renunciation and a pilgrimage, a way to give up all our habitual comforts and resources and to open up to reality, to the conditions of the world of which we are [...]
How to Unleash The Great Perfection of Creativity
Informed by the profound teachings of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal tells us how to unleash powerful creative energy we can use anywhere, from the office to the art studio. There is little in life that does not require at least some measure of creativity. Whether you are trying to compose a symphony, write an essay, find a job, cook a meal, or [...]
Topsy-Turvy World
The strength of mind that comes from meditation, says Norman Fischer, can help us end the denial that keeps a world of problems spinning. There’s an old Zen saying: “The world is topsy-turvy.” In other words, it’s an upside-down, crazy world. This may seem like an extreme statement, but only for a minute. If craziness means that we keep doing dysfunctional and destructive [...]
Feminine Principal
The principal figure in Buddhism is the teacher, a role traditionally dominated by men. Andrea Miller profiles three women teachers — Trudy Goodman, Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, and Lama Palden Drolma — who are changing the face of Buddhism and making the teachings whole. In a hospital room in Buffalo, New York, Trudy Goodman had a spiritual experience she had no way to [...]
Enter… the Bodhisattva
David Loy on why the bodhisattva ideal is what the world needs now. Unless you’re on long retreat in a Himalayan cave, it’s becoming more difficult to overlook the fact that our world is beset by interacting ecological, economic, and social crises. Climate breakdown, species extinction, a dysfunctional economic system, corporate domination of government, overpopulation—it’s a [...]
Living With Awareness: Introducing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness
For over twenty years, Bhante Gunaratana’s classic book Mindfulness in Plain English has been an entry-point into mindfulness practice. His follow-up book Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English unpacks the Satipatthana Sutta, a pivotal talk said to have been given by the Buddha. This excerpt from the introduction to The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain [...]
An ICU for the Soul
Photo by Benjamin Ellis. When a friend is dealt a heavy emotional blow, Pico Iyer suggests to her that silence and stillness might be the best medicine. Sometimes, it seems, you've got to retreat before you can move forward. A retreat house is “An emergency room for the soul,” I had written, meaning nothing, in a piece I sent to a friend. She had recently lost a love, and I [...]
Jolly Good
"There is a natural healthiness and sense of goodness we can all experience personally," says Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche on the Shambhala teachings. "Then we will discover what kind of joy is needed to help the world. We find that the joy of warriorship is always needed." We are going to discuss the ground for building an enlightened society. No matter where we are in the world, [...]
Helping Others, and Yourself, through Tonglen Meditation
Make your vow to help others heal with this meditation teaching from Pema Chödrön. The first stage in the practice of tonglen, or taking and sending, is a pause, a moment of stillness and space, a brief gap. If you need an image for this, you can reflect on any experience of wide-open space, such as gazing out at the ocean or looking up into a cloudless sky. The second [...]
A Greater Happiness
We've all got the potential to awaken and help others in meaningful ways, big and small. Pema Chödron shows us how we can let go of self-centered worries and become a bodhisattva-warrior. It's the greatest happiness of all. Compassion is threatening to the ego. We might think of it as something warm and soothing, but actually it’s very raw. When we set out to support other [...]