I feel that I should be above it all, but mostly I’m not. I struggle with my emotions. Meditation helps a lot, but sometimes I am just plain sad or overcome by all that is untenable

Good poems, for me, are often potent teachings on how to live this precious life we are given. Over the years I have been moved to tears reading poems.  There is one poet in particular I

You can’t push the river, the Zen masters of old would say. And wow, how I have tried—reading, studying the Dharma, going on retreats, even fasting from time to time. And it’s still little ol’ me,

One of my teachers, Michele McDonald-Smith, once recounted that a 92 year old relative of hers, on being informed by her doctor of a terminal cancer diagnosis, became upset and implored “Why me?” As a species

Meditation is not easy, I get it. There are aches and pains in the body, the mind gets restless, and the breath fades in and out of awareness. Sometimes, mostly out. But, as Hawaii-born retired Sumo

Do we feel we are missing out on some better, or more spiritual, experience by being stuck with a mountain of laundry, a sink overflowing with dishes, or a yard full of leaves to rake? Karen

“Do not think that love must be extraordinary to be genuine. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” –Mother Teresa

Mindfulness meditation leaves the self-help mindset in the dust by challenging the existence of the very thing we are setting out to improve, the self. In an article on the self-help movement in New York Magazine

While everyone is wishing their co-workers, friends and family a fantastic new year full of creativity, self-improvement, and relationship-hacking bravado, I would settle for an ordinary new year. — Nothing special. Wishing others an entire year

There is a way to live your ordinary life in pristine peace and joy just as it is right now. This is the way of everyday mysticism, yet it’s not about any “ism” at all. The