I'm about to get on a plane to see my partner. We haven't seen each other in four months. Well, OK, we've seen each other virtually every day for four months. On Skype, of course.

We have come in America today to a very different world, which we might call liberal whateverism. This outlook reacts against sectarian conflict by dramatically discounting the claims of religion.

Buddhism has no single dogmatic view of karma. Unlike Western religious traditions, Buddhism is extremely fluid in its teaching, and assumes that people will gradually move towards more sophisticated understanding of the truth.

As a vegetarian Hindu in a meat-eating world, I know that I run the risk of eating things that aren't 100 percent vegetarian. Going to the grocery store seems more like a trip to the library some days, as I pore over fine-print labels.

Addicts are in a hurry. We expect results now. Recovery doesn't work like that. The Law of Karma doesn't deliver results on our timeline. For an addict, this can be torture, but it's all part of the recovery process,

As someone who has studied Buddhism (read: slightly above Wikipedia-level knowledge), I see several important concepts that resonate in the outcome of the series.

I'm not referring to the yoga practice where you try to turn yourself into a pretzel. I am sticking to the original meaning of the term, to harness or bind back. Yoga means you are trying to reconnect with the divine.

Faith that karma will mete out punishment with mathematical certainty may work against the potential for remorse, regret or reconciliation.

That tweet couldn't possibly have been received well no matter what happened.

From a Buddhist point of view, sudden death can be particularly difficult. The contrast between the sense of presence and the sense of absence is so sharp and shocking.

When I meet people who have not heard of Jainism, or who assume it is an obscure branch of Hinduism, it frustrates me. Honestly though, until a few years ago, I barely knew the difference myself.