A classical teaching on why it’s so hard to let go, but why we must, if we want to find freedom from suffering.Talk given at Insight Meditation Satsang, Yoga Tree Telegraph.
The gratification, the danger, and the escape Read More »
Talk: Responding to the tragedy in Orlando. (6.16.16)
After the Orlando nightclub attack Read More »
Every week at Satsang, we do a short chanting ceremony called a pūjā, or devotional ritual. We chant a few ancient verses in Pāli, the language of the early Buddhist texts. These verses are excerpts from a longer sequence of chants done daily in Theravāda monasteries, emphasizing the basic lay (non-monastic) practices of going for refuge and the five ethical precepts.
Theravada Refuge & Precepts Pūjā Read More »
We do this chant at the end of the Satsang meditation period. It’s an ancient mantra beloved in both the Buddhist and Hindu Yoga traditions, and translates roughly as: May all beings be at ease.OM, Peace, peace, peace. If you want to use it as a mantra to repeat, you could omit the “oṃ śāntiḥ” part and just let the
Chants: lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu Read More »
I assembled this bibliography in 2015 for my PhD dissertation. It’s not exhaustive, and focuses on the use of Authentic Movement both as an expressive therapeutic form and as a mystical spiritual discipline. Adler, Janet. “Who is the witness? A description of authentic movement.” 2000) Authentic (1985). Adler, Janet. “Body and soul.” American Journal of Dance Therapy 14, no. 2
Authentic Movement: Selective Bibliography Read More »
Talk: Mindfulness as intimacy with ourselves, with the world through our senses, in relationship with each moment. Given at Vajrapani yoga and meditation retreat with Pete Guinosso. (10.2.15)
Mindfulness means intimacy Read More »
The core Buddhist doctrine of the Four Noble Truths is a lens through which to see the world, which is why it’s the heart of the path, described in the first limb, Right View. It explains the painful reality of the world in compellingly simple terms, offering a beautiful, if stark, framework for understanding who I am and what’s happening
From this craving for power, this global disaster Read More »
Both Buddhism and Hinduism personify Death in the form of a deity. The two traditions’ imagination around this figure naturally has many overlaps, but I’m suddenly thinking about some that I can’t find any reference to in the scholarly literature. The correspondence is about the role of Death as Teacher, as appearing in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, and the role of Māra
Yama and Mara: Hindu and Buddhist personifications of Death, a hypothesis Read More »
One of the marks of a great text seems to be that it can be deeply important to wildly different people from cultures separated from each other by vast distances of time and space. A theater company in Kolkata establishes a reputation for cutting social realism by putting on Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, while a British director in France hubristically (and with some success) attempts to stage the entire Mahabharata. A Japanese director who traces his lineage
I have seen the yogi and he is us: Patañjali and the consolations of ambiguity Read More »
After a long day of sessions, feeling with clients/students through the morass of feelings and confusions that seem to be the near-universal experience of being human around here, I light a dry leaf of white sage, shake off the fire, and walk slowly around the practice room both clearing the air and honoring the images and statues that live there.
Devotion and doubt: race, religion, and postmodern kirtan Read More »
May the forces of delusion
not take hold, nor
weaken my resolve.
(Sharing of Merit)