I had a strange experience the other day. The landline in my NYC sublet had intermittently stopped working, for days on end. No dial tone, or a strange sound of static, or a faint message about a receiver being off the hook (I only have one.) I made many calls...

It's the end of daylight savings time on the east coast, and it just about always seems to be dim. Each day is largely dark, and cold, hinting at the uselessness of endeavor and the insubstantiality of what we ordinarily run around seeking. It's a good time to be depressed....

I was just at netroots nation, a convention bringing together progressive activists, bloggers and politicians. I went to a panel one afternoon called Organizing as a Healing Process: A fresh Perspective on PTSD. I've done a little bit of work with soldiers returning from Iraq and have worked with...

After the metro bombing in London, in July 2005, my initial response echoed most of those around me: sorrow for lives lost, some anxiety about getting on a subway in NYC, distress at the state of a degenerating world. This was all natural, but remained strictly within "us versus them"...

We always used to say that India would either accept you or reject you, take you in or spit you out. A land of intense extremes -- in climate, in topography, in mood, in levels of wealth and status -- India was the home of the Buddha's middle way, avoiding...

I was once practicing meditation in Benares, India, in a monastery situated right in between a bus station and a train station. In this very urban, crowded place, there was one patch of garden which was a few square feet.

I was sitting outside there one day next to...

Recently I led a workshop with my friend, Bob Thurman, on working with your enemies. The workshop was in Washington DC, which seems a particularly apt place to explore the consequences of being stuck in a tight worldview of "us" and "them"; many would say it is a notable spot...

On a wintry day just before the New York State Democratic primary, I was volunteering for Senator Obama's campaign, and was assigned to stand alongside my friends in front of a subway exit in Manhattan's Union Square. We were all holding up signs with the candidate's name and his campaign...