Almost five years ago, Erin Szopiak organized a mindful dinner for some of our friends: Everything for the menu had been grown locally, several of us helped prepare the meal in the King’s spacious kitchen,…
Opera excepted, I never asked myself, in those early years of reading literature in translation, what I was missing. It was as if I felt it were my job, as a passionate reader, to see…
At a recent gathering of the Saint Louis Mindfulness Sangha, I shared the following excerpt from Pema Chödrön’s book, Go to the Places That Scare You… The second of the three lords of materialism is the…
Hope itself is a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly…
First, deal with your koan: “Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.” Second, deepen your breathing. Third, most importantly, build the sangha based on…
First, deal with your koan: “Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.” Second, deepen your breathing. Third, most importantly, build the sangha based on…
Since mid-November, I’ve had exchanges with numerous people who were consumed with dread at so much bad news in the news. One afternoon, while walking in the Central West End, I was reminded of…
Many of us worry about the world situation. We don’t know when the bombs will explode. We feel that we are on the edge of time. As individuals, we feel helpless, despairing. The situation is so…
The swami told me to make japam while I walked and to give everybody I met on a street a mental blessing. You weren’t to think of yourself with a feeling of superiority, as a…
The more American troops sent to Vietnam, the more the anti-American campaign led by the NLF becomes successful. Anger and hatred rise in the hearts of the peasants as they see their villages burned, their…