The last two weeks of December are among my very favorite of the year because it is a natural time for turning inward, taking stock, envisioning the future and so on.

I don't know about you, but I've spent many a late December making long lists of goals to achieve...

Recently, a member of the Open Heart Project wrote asking if I knew of any meditations for dealing with anxiety and this really started me thinking. I struggle with anxiety myself and it has been through attempting to apply the dharma to my own experiences that I have...

This morning I woke up with a feeling of depression. This is not unusual for me. Perhaps you can relate. I have struggled with depression for my entire life since I was a child. I really don't know why and I sort of don't really care why anymore. Nonetheless, I...

September 12, 2011

There is a Buddhist meditation practice called Tonglen. In Tibetan, "tong" means "sending out" and "len" means "receiving." So Tonglen is known as the practice of sending and taking, or of exchanging self for other. Instead of inhaling what makes us feel good and exhaling what makes...

When I started practicing meditation in 1995, I didn't tell too many people about it for fear they would think I had joined a cult or turned into some kind of new-aged oddball. If I mention it today, however, I'm more likely to be greeted by comments like, "I just...

The other day, I was talking to my friend Bridget about her new guy. He was everything she said she wanted: smart, handsome, funny, gainfully employed in a creative profession, and committed to the same social causes she was. Most awesome of all, sex was h.o.t. You know, the kind...

Last Monday, I wrote a little about my response to Osama bin Laden's killing. Upon hearing of his death, most people expressed heartfelt and understandable relief that our hunt for one who wished to destroy us was over. Others participated in "celebrations" that seemed tinged with what could...

"In the Shambhala warrior tradition, we say you should only have to kill an enemy once every thousand years."
--Chogyam Trungpa

Osama bin Laden is dead. We killed him. It seemed there was no choice. We were clearly in an "us-or-them" situation, and if we didn't kill him, he...

When it comes to creating real change in your life, there is only one action item that is critical. The most brilliant organizational strategies and profound insights into human behavior are 100 percent meaningless without it. If you are not doing this one thing, nothing else matters. I'm not being...

Can I just say I’m thrilled that Russell Brand is a meditator? For some reason, I take personal pride in every newcomer to the practice. I know he's been practicing because I read it in The New York Times, in an article called "Look Who's Meditating Now." The...

What if I told you that the way to change the world was not to be bold, resolute, brilliant or even compassionate? What if I told you that the way to change the world was to be sad?

It sounds so improbable. When we think of those who have taught...

Good morning! It is my pleasure to introduce you to meditation practice, or -- if you already have a practice -- to revisit the foundations with you.

The Practice of Tranquility is more than 2,500 years old and has been practiced by countless people over the millennia. I say...

Self-help is such a nutty genre. You walk into a bookstore (at least while we're still able to) and find in the self-help section books of the most profound and timeless wisdom imaginable... sitting right next to books containing the most unbelievable crapola.

Believe me, I love self-help. It's...

Recently, I've been asking you lovely readers to let me know if you have any questions or topics you'd like me to address in a blog post. I've received some amazing, deep and deeply heartfelt questions. Stay tuned to hear riffs on issues such as:

• "How can I maintain hope...

What if we could celebrate Valentine's Day in a whole different way? What if, instead of celebrating whether or not we have someone to take us out to dinner, we celebrated all the love we have ever felt in our lives, all the love we have yet to feel and...

I love yoga. I've been a half-assed student (which might be an asana, I'm not sure) for close to 20 years. I remember the moment I fell in love with the practice. It was at Kripalu. The teacher was Stephen (Kaviraj) Cope. The pose was trikonasana/triangle....

I knew I was a Buddhist the moment I read a book by Chogyam Trungpa called The Heart of the Buddha. This is how I already think, only I didn't know it, I said to myself. I must be a Buddhist. From that moment, the fates conspired to...

Last week, we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Twelve years. Long enough to have some sense of what we've gotten ourselves into. Not long enough to know what to do with it all. As we were getting ready to celebrate 12 years of wedded bliss, (yes, but also of wedded...

I have been a student of Buddhism since 1995, and the study and practice of dharma inform my actions, friendships and creative focus. When you become a Buddhist, part of the commitment is to take off the training wheels and do your best to put the dharma into play in...

By now, many of us have heard of the extraordinary, scientifically proven health benefits of meditation. It relieves stress (by lowering cortisol), improves focus and memory (by raising the level of gamma waves), prevents relapse into depression by 50 percent (according to studies by...