When a human life comes into being, a unique form comes together, like a drop of water when it is separated from the wholeness of the river as it hits a rock or falls down a waterfall.
Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that evil is not something manifested by wicked people, rather it perpetuates with the conventions that we absorb from childhood.
Mary Oliver’s poem When Death Comes is a meditation on death and an uplifting reminder of the joy and importance of a life well-lived.
In 1993, Zen teacher Joan Halifax published a book called The Fruitful Darkness based on her anthropological engagements with Tibetan Buddhists, Mexican shamans, Native American elders and other tribal communities.
Huxley on the beatific vision of divine beauty that resides in Pure Interval and harmonious relationship, and experiencing the divine through architecture, music, sacred geometries and human relationships.
Published in 1925, The Game of Life and How to Play It was a trailblazing tome of self-help literature couched in positive thinking and affirmative actions.
The Discourse on Knowing The Better Way to Catch a Snake (the Alagaddūpama Sutta) is a Buddhist teaching about not clinging to views.
Hongzhi Zhengjue was a 12th century philosopher and Zen master in China who authored a large number of philosophical texts as well as the seminal
In this short chapter from the Shobogenzo, Sho-ji, Dogen plays with the distinction between the nuances of the two different meanings, life and death being static and self-defined events, which he argues have no substance or existence, and living and dying which are an endless flow of events and dynamic being
Zhuangzi’s story of the dexterous Cook Ding who teaches a lord a profound life lesson through the workings of his knife.
The Fukanzazenki is a 13th century Japanese text that provides the most fundamental instructions for Zen meditation, including details on the ideal environment and posture for practice.
Alan Watts often said that in order to come to your senses, you have to get out of your mind. Watts was emphatic about self-realization and breaking through cultural and psychic barriers in order to live as a fully-fledged, fearless human being.
Among Alan Watts’ most compelling qualities was his fascination with different systems of faith and his
Our favorite rogue Zen philosopher, Alan Watts had a gift for contextualizing the principles of
Alan Watts was one of the foremost interpreters of Eastern philosophy in Europe and the
Religion and faith are two of the most difficult subjects to write about according to Nicholas Trandahl, author of the poem, The Chapel.
Writing can be anything, from self-discovery to incorporating pain to establishing direction, according to poet Caroline Goodwin, who featured in The Dewdrop a couple of weeks ago with her poem, Not I’ll Not, from her book, Custody of the Eyes.
Author Cuong Lu is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh and has worked for many years as a prison chaplain.
Les Kaye is the Abbot of Kannon Do meditation center in Mountain View and the author of the books Joyously
Can writing with your wrong hand beat writer’s block? Are maternity leave and creativity at all compatible? Danielle Pieratti, The
Ben Connelly is a Zen teacher at the Minnesota Zen Center as well as the author of several books including
17th century Zen master Bankei on the Unborn, the unconditioned mind that comes up spontaneously and is fundamental to every person, without exception.
“What does it mean to ask a question? Is there some magic in the inquisitive brain?” Susan Blackmore’s lifelong investigation into consciousness encompasses Zen practice and the recurring question: Am I conscious now?
The Bhaddekaratta Sutta is one of the many teachings the Buddha gave over the course of his 19 three-month practice periods at the Jetavana Monastery. It conveys the essence of a self-sufficient practice and way of existing – not clinging to the past or living for the future but diligently dwelling in current stability and freedom.
Achaan Chaa was a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition who taught a simple practice in nature that did not depend on reading or studying.
Adachi Chiyono (also known as Mugai Nyodai) was the daughter of a samurai warrior in the 13th century who became the first woman – and mother – to found and head a Zen monastery in Japan.
‘Selflessness is the soul of teamwork’ was former basketball coach Phil Jackson’s mantra when coaching his players in the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Jijuyu Zanmai is the second section of the first part of Dogen’s Bendowa – ‘The Endeavor of the Way’ and concerns the experience of zazen
This biographical snippet, taken from the introduction of Tenshin Reb Anderson’s book Being Upright, tells a bit of the story of how he met his
Mitsu Suzuki was the wife of Shunryu Suzuki who accompanied him when he moved to the United States from Japan in the 1960s. After her
Dainin Katagiri came to the United States in 1963, originally to help out at the Zenshuji mission in Los Angeles, before moving up to San
DT Suzuki was a Japanese philosopher whose work helped to introduce Zen and Buddhism to the West in the time before it became a popular
Kodo Sawaki’s reluctance to ever fully associate himself with a temple or a Zen institution earned him the nickname, ‘The Homeless Kodo’. He was considered one
Ruth King is a writer and Buddhist teacher who focuses on working with racial identity in learning meditation and using the tools of spiritual practice to examine one’s own racial being. King combines western psychology with eastern philosophy and indigenous wisdom to coach her students in becoming more aware of their underlying areas of fear and vulnerability as well as the key points of their own rigidity.
James Baldwin describes his own coming of age and awakening to spiritual and political consciousness as beginning with the revelation of sin: ‘I became, during my fourteenth year, for the first time in my life, afraid—afraid of the evil within me and afraid of the evil without.’
The acceptance of the fundamental changing, impermanent nature of the world is at the heart of Buddhist philosophy and is a constant theme through Pema Chodron’s teachings. When things fall apart, when the ground is pulled out from under us, it is not a cause for panic, but rather a cause for celebration.
In this excerpt from an article published prior to the release of Between the World and Me, Coates talks about his childhood in West Baltimore. He describes the gap he felt between his own world and the world he saw through the TV set, as well as the perplexity and disingenuity of being fed a stream of non-violent role models at school.
Tim Desmond writes about his wife’s terminal illness, and his revelation about the way in which his deep love for his wife was manifesting as anxiety, and because of it he was missing their shared moments of beauty.
In her years working as a hospice chaplain, spiritual caregiver and author Kerry Egan has rarely found that dying patients want to discuss God or religion. Instead, chaplaincy work for her leans on the quality of the presence she can offer her patients and the compassion and empathy with which she can hold space for them and their stories.
‘How long has it been since you wrote a story where your real love or your real hatred somehow got onto the paper?’ Finding the truth of our authentic passions is the key to forming the foundations of a writing practice, according to science fiction author Ray Bradbury.
We often identify ourselves with the events that have happened to us and the things we have done, rather than the subjective center of experience itself. In an echo of the Buddhist teaching of the absence of a permanent self, Harris asserts that when the absence of this self is found, then ‘the feeling of being a self disappears.’
When a human life comes into being, a unique form comes together, like a drop of water when it is separated from the wholeness of the river as it hits a rock or falls down a waterfall.
Pineapple Sage was written in David Rosenheim’s ‘postage-stamp-sized back garden, which he says, ‘continues to unfold as a canvas for close inspection.’
Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that evil is not something manifested by wicked people, rather it perpetuates with the conventions that we absorb from childhood.
Samia Singh’s The Storms Within launches our new section Micro Gallery, where we host a small, specially curated exhibition by a visual artist. The Storms Within is a series of etchings created by Punjabi-born Singh during a residency in Florence. She tells the story of how the prints came about and what she learned during her time in Italy.
Mary Oliver’s poem When Death Comes is a meditation on death and an uplifting reminder of the joy and importance of a life well-lived.
In 1993, Zen teacher Joan Halifax published a book called The Fruitful Darkness based on her anthropological engagements with Tibetan Buddhists, Mexican shamans, Native American elders and other tribal communities.
The germ of the poem I Me Mine came to Matthe Kohut when he startled awake on a train that was passing through the area where he grew up.
Huxley on the beatific vision of divine beauty that resides in Pure Interval and harmonious relationship, and experiencing the divine through architecture, music, sacred geometries and human relationships.
The Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges once wrote: “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
Published in 1925, The Game of Life and How to Play It was a trailblazing tome of self-help literature couched in positive thinking and affirmative actions.
Jennifer Hollis’ poem sits on the threshold of motherhood, at the moment of transition when the personal and intimately known is sent out into a world keen to lay claim to it with a designation.
Photographer Marcia Lieberman’s new book, Clean Slate, is a meditation on nature and temple gardens made in the footsteps of 13th century Japanese Zen master Dogen.
Writer and botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass is a call to awakening to ecological consciousness and an awareness of our interconnectedness with nature.
Theodore Roethke was an intensely introspective poet whose work has been hailed by critics as some of the finest American poetry from the last century.
The Discourse on Knowing The Better Way to Catch a Snake (the Alagaddūpama Sutta) is a Buddhist teaching about not clinging to views.
“While I often found the emergence from the dark of the tunnel shocking, as my eyes would adjust and I would look forward and skyward, I always found this image to be comforting, reassuring.”
In this essay about anger and injustice, writer and social activist Alice Walker begins by presenting a curse prayer found by Zora Neale Hurston that is more than a century old.
In a 2001 interview with The Christian Science Monitor, poet Galway Kinnell talked about seeing beyond the usual clichés of things: “‘Pig’ is a pejorative word, but if you get
Hongzhi Zhengjue was a 12th century philosopher and Zen master in China who authored a large number of philosophical texts as well as the seminal collection of koans, The Book
In his 1946 essay, Why I Write, George Orwell set out what he saw as the main motivators for writing: they were, sheer egotism, esthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse and political
