We realize everyone is experiencing the same impermanence that we are. This is one Buddhist insight I hang on to. It feels comforting. These are not my words. They were written by Kathryn Schulz, a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of the deeply moving Lost & Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude,
Meditation shows me my burdens were mostly imagined. But even imaginary ones can carry real emotional weight. I remember this cartoon I saw perhaps 20 years ago while waiting at a doctor’s office. A woman and a man are sitting together at a coffee shop in some urban setting. The man looks over and says:
Lately, I’ve been dealing with a relative of monkey mind I am calling crabby mind. They may be far apart on the biologic tree of life, but they are kissing cousins on my meditation mat. I’ve turned into a real crab. No, I didn’t wake up one morning to discover I was a decapod crustacean
What makes the difference in the contemplative life are the qualities of heart we bring to our everyday experiences. When asked the value of contemplative life, the 13th century Japanese monk Dogen said it allowed him to feel “an intimacy with all things.” Mindfulness allows us to see a flower, or watch a sunset, or
Good poetry can show intricacies of meaning and feeling easily lost. This is why I trust the vision of poets and consider good poetry as mindfulness. The Zen teacher Sobun Katherine Thanas in a book which was published not long after she passed a few years ago, wrote: I have come to realize that our
If I’m going to explore aging and humility I need to remember we older ones are no longer as energetic, or slim, or good looking. The other day I received an interesting catalog in the mail. My wife thought it was a medical scrubs catalog, but when I looked closer the company’s about us page
Yes, we are all in a mess, with suffering and despair everywhere-yet one lonely channel broadcasts the remarkable message that despite it all, everything is fine. In a web-series from a few years ago hosted by Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian Garry Shandling recalls telling a joke once to an audience of Buddhist monks, one of
Perhaps we need to chill a little, and settle into the slow simple life that’s already here. And embrace this moment, without trying to improve or tweak anything. I read a story the other day, attributed to Nikolai Gogol, about a horse that was stuck in the mud. It struggled and struggled to get its
Relaxing into not-knowing is a key to the present moment. When you don’t know, all possibilities are open. How do we live our life knowing that it’s temporary? We have this opportunity to live this life, and we don’t know for how long. And we don’t know what will happen next. I am guessing most