On karma and white privilege
For more resources (for white folks) on uprooting White Privilege, check out the White Awake curriculum developed in part by the folks at Insight Meditation Washington DC.
On karma and white privilege Read More »
For more resources (for white folks) on uprooting White Privilege, check out the White Awake curriculum developed in part by the folks at Insight Meditation Washington DC.
On karma and white privilege Read More »
The doctrinal list known as the 10 Perfections, or pāramī, has only a small place in the earliest layer of the Buddhist teachings, but by the time the Pāli Canon was being fully assembled and the Mahāyāna revolution was well-underway, the list became one of the central frameworks for describing the qualities that aspiring Buddhas, or “Bodhisattvas” should cultivate. The Jataka Tales
10 Perfections (pāramī) to Cultivate on the Path Read More »
For many years, parallel with my training in Buddhism and Yoga, I practiced a contemporary contemplative discipline called Authentic Movement (AM). Developed by dancers and Jungian analysts in the 1970s, AM is rare in both its provenance as a contemplative art created and maintained almost entirely by women, and in its resistance to capitalism and the spiritual marketplace. Few people
Authentic Movement as Tandava Read More »
How self-judgment is interwoven with the unfolding of Action and its Results, or kamma/karma, and the implications for our sense of self, leading to the subtle and difficult teaching of Selflessness, or anattā.
Self-judgment, karma and Selflessness (anattā) Read More »
Physical movement with the goal of cultivating energy is one of the most dynamic and creative types of liberation practice. It has been part of both Buddhist and Hindu-lineage contemplative work since the earliest centuries of Yoga and asceticism as formal paths in South Asian spiritual life. Resources for this practice: For an online intro to this framework, see the short
Hatha Yoga Sadhana: The Subtle Dance Read More »
Here’s some background on this terrible fire that shocked our community. I knew someone who died in it, and people in the Satsang community also lost friends. The talk touches on grief and mourning, and the room was really heavy. I’m glad we had the space to gather.
Grief and Mourning, after the Oakland Ghost Ship fire Read More »
[Putting the last few words and videos I have from my brightest years as a performance artist here. How tremendously far away they, this I, feel. Making it a “post” instead of a “page,” date-stamped, scroll-lost, faded even more. I almost just left it off the new site entirely, but this is better. A little midnight prayer as the new
Traces of a past life Read More »
The 3 Characteristics or Marks (tilakkhaṇa) of all conditioned things. These three comprise the core insights that begin the path of Liberation from Suffering in the Theravāda tradition. 1. Impermanence, the constancy of Change (anicca) 2. Unsatisfactoriness, the first Noble Truth, Suffering (dukkha) 3. Selflessness, Emptiness of Independent Essence (anattā)
The 3 Characteristics (tilakkhaṇa) Read More »
Buddhism as a liberation path is a gradual purification of the heart that takes root as we see more clearly, stop clinging so much, and grow out of confusion about who we are into the maturity called wisdom. Wisdom is expressed partly as understanding: everything changes, and many things hurt, but there’s an openness, a clear space, at the heart
The 5 Ethical Precepts (sīla) Read More »
The Buddhist cosmological framework of the “6 Realms” can be read both as a map of where beings go from lifetime to lifetime, and/or a map of the psychological-emotional-relational states we pass through in the course of this life. Both are valuable. Here’s a discussion of the map in relation to the social justice work around privilege.
The teaching of the 6 Realms as a metaphor for privilege Read More »