At a Tipping Point -- Towards Healing the Climate
"Climate change is the undercurrent that drives and shapes our lives in countless ways. Journalist Judith D. Schwartz sees the term as shorthand. It's almost as if people think climate is this phenomenon, determined solely by CO2, as if we could turn a dial up or down," she tells me over the phone. We are missing so much." In her quest for climate solutions, Schwartz leans into the complexity of n... posted on Sep 05 2020, 4,898 reads

Ayni: Living Life in the Round
"Today For You, Tomorrow For Me." This is the meaning behind ayni, a living Andean philosophy and practice that awakens a balanced and harmonious relationship between nature and man. In Andean cosmology, this is expressed through complementary opposites such as male/female; sun/moon; gold/silver. Their interaction is a form of reciprocity called ayni. One of the guiding principles of the way of l... posted on Sep 04 2020, 5,174 reads

Brian Conroy: The Art of Storytelling
Brian Conroy is a gifted storyteller who comes alive when he sees people of diverse faiths, races, and backgrounds working together. Founder of the Buddhist Storytelling Circle, a group of storytellers from the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery who perform at interfaith gatherings, he first encountered Venerable Master Hsuan Hua in 1976 and took refuge with the Master in 1994. Bringing together his pass... posted on Sep 03 2020, 4,896 reads

Photographing the Hidden Story
Photographer Ryan Lobo tells how conscience led him to search beneath sensational aspects of journalism for the soul of a story. From this shift he discovers, "Focus on what's dignified, courageous, and beautiful, and it grows."... posted on Sep 02 2020, 3,159 reads

Dial Up the Magic of This Moment
"Few people have stood at the gates of hope through world wars and environmental crises and personal loss with more dignity, wisdom, and optimism than Joanna Macy during her six decades as a Buddhist scholar, environmental activist, and pioneering philosopher of ecology. Macy is also the world's greatest translator-enchantress of Rainer Maria Rilke, in whose poetry she found refuge upon the sudd... posted on Sep 01 2020, 6,412 reads

Revisiting Fred Rogers 2002 Commencement Address
"I'm very much interested in choices, and what it is, and who it is, that enable us human beings to make the choices we make all through our lives. What choices lead to ethnic cleansing? What choices lead to healing? What choices lead to the destruction of the environment, the erosion of the Sabbath, suicide bombings, or teenagers shooting teachers. What choices encourage heroism in the midst of c... posted on Aug 31 2020, 12,078 reads

A Pandemic Letter to My 17-Year-Old Son
"Starting when you were just a toddler, you'd crawl into my lap to play a game. I'd lay hands on each part of your body, naming it aloud. Wed begin with the grass of hair on your head and slowly work our way down to your piggy toes. You soon learned even the regions of your brain, the organs in your torso, and your seven chakras." So begins a touching letter written by a mother to her 17-year-old ... posted on Aug 30 2020, 10,875 reads

Beyond Words: A Conversation with Carl Safina
"Safina's journey in ecology and conservation took him through his PhD and then back to the obvious. I learned this is called anthropomorphizing and you're not supposed to do that. The orthodox view is that other animals don't have human thoughts or emotions. I learned all of that and then realized that what I knew when I was seven was actually more accurate." More in this interview with Safina.posted on Aug 29 2020, 2,430 reads

Lucky Man: Life Lessons from William Segal
"How can we find balance and peace in the midst of pain and turmoil? A legendary Zen Buddhist master once sent this startling note to a friend: "Lucky man," wrote Soen Nakagawa Roshi, the abbot of Ryutakuji monastery in Japan. "One accident like yours is worth ten thousand sittings in a monastery!" The accident the Zen master mentioned was a devastating car crash. The "lucky man" was William Sega... posted on Aug 28 2020, 5,676 reads

The Beauty in Breaking
Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is predominantly male and white. In her new book, "The Beauty in Breaking," she explores the themes of race, gender, injustice and hope -- and in doing so shares the story of how her own healing emerged through a life lived in service of others. Read an excerpt from the book here.... posted on Aug 27 2020, 4,233 reads