Ed and Deb Shapiro

Meditation is simple and transformative, yet it is highly misunderstood. Some people think it is about controlling our mind or stopping our thinking, while others see it as both weird and wacky or boring and meaningless.

Yet meditation really just means being totally present, totally aware with whatever is happening....

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows. -- Buddha

With six months to go before the election, President Obama has officially launched his campaign. This is an important time for him not to take anything for granted but also to stay...

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. -- Buddha

One of the truly great things in life is to discover our genuine and authentic self, to dance to the beat of our own drum. And so, conversely,...

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. -- John Lennon

Who said life would be like walking the yellow brick road, or that the human condition would be easy? And why is it so important to be here? What's the big deal? It appears that...

If we act with kindness and without focusing on ourselves, happiness will arise naturally, like a flower opening in the sun.

Some people think that yoga means stretching, bending and twisting like a pretzel, or sitting crossed-legged with our eyes closed and chanting "Om." But if that is all...

Keep cool; anger is not an argument. -- Daniel Webster

Soon after Nelson Mandela's release from 27 years in jail, Bill Clinton asked him if he was angry the day he finally walked away free. "Surely," Clinton said, "you must have felt some anger?" Mandela agreed that, yes, alongside the...

We were teaching a meditation program in North Wales, in the UK, in a quiet backwater near the hills. It was a peaceful day, everyone was happily seated, and we had just rung the gong to begin the morning session when a motorbike started revving right outside the window. It...

An oyster may not like that irritating grain of sand in its shell, but it manages to transform it into a precious pearl. That's quite a feat. Just like beautiful roses growing out of smelly manure, a delicate butterfly emerging out of a caterpillar or muddy water turning into sweet...

Yoga has come a long way from its roots in the East. As it has become more popular in the West teachers have added their own twist -- both literally and figuratively. In the process of becoming so widespread, however, it often gets misunderstood by both teachers and practitioners.

Love is letting go of fear -- Gerald Jamplosky

Love is in the air! Everywhere we see red hearts beaming from cards and boxes of chocolates. The color red is entrenched in our collective psyche as the symbol of love -- a dozen roses do not have quite the same...

The story goes that, at the time of the Buddha, a group of monks wanted to do a quiet retreat away from the crowds of followers, so the Buddha sent them to a glade in the forest where he said they would be undisturbed.

The monks found their way...

Shortly after we were married we went to India and spent our honeymoon in a Yoga ashram and a Buddhist monastery. We also had a private meeting with the Dalai Lama at his residence in McLeod Ganj, in the foothills of the Himalayas. As Ed recalls:

"After some 30...

India is an extraordinary country where you get to meet all sorts of unusual people. On a recent visit we had tea with Mary and Don, a fascinating couple, who were born-again Christians from Texas. For over 25 years they had been running a clinic for disabled and handicapped children,...

Ironically, the holiday season can be most stressful time of the year. Just imagine you are trying to squeeze some toothpaste out of a tube but you have forgotten to take the cap off. What happens? Deb actually did this in one of her most unaware moments and the toothpaste...

Most of us tend to think of our bodies and minds as separate entities and treat them as such: we feed and water our body, take it for walks and give it exercise; we feed our mind with ideas and amuse ourselves with various kinds of entertainment. If anything goes...

Ed remembers having an upset stomach when he was a child and his grandmother asking him if he was having a problem at school. What she knew instinctively we are at last beginning to prove scientifically: that there is an intimate and dynamic relationship between what is going on with...

When Ed trained in yoga he lived in silence, practice and service. He soon became aware that yoga is far more than just a series of postures or mental exercises, but rather is a way of life that leads to self-realization. He trained at the Bihar School of Yoga in...

How can anyone love me is an honest observation of what many people have hidden in their psyche. We all put up a good front, we want people to think we are normal, but what lies lurking beneath the surface is another story, and it may not be as pretty...

Ed is a passionate and expert skier. When you sit for meditation and your mind drifts you can just bring it back to your practice and continue. But if you are skiing down a steep mountain and you lose concentration you could hit a tree. Ed teaches this, calling it...

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
-- Lao Tzu

At a time of economic downturn, with corruption on the rise and countries at war, we wondered what could bring greater awareness, kindness and compassion to a world in so much...