Consciousness as the Ground of Being
"I woke in the night and suddenly, to put it very briefly, I experienced myself as love. It felt like an unbelievably strong and powerful love an energy which was both scintillating white and self-knowing -- and it was coming from me. This I found extraordinary, because I didn't know then that such love could emerge from me, or from anybody. And so I was stunned. Then this energy exploded, and I ... posted on Jan 17 2022, 8,773 reads

Rachel Callander Sees Superpowers
"My first major experience with the healthcare system and with disability was in 2008, when my daughter Evie was born. She had a very rare chromosome condition,and what I noticed after she was born was that the language I was using about her and the language that the doctors were using was very different. And I liked my language better [laughs].Because it highlighted ability and it highlighted hum... posted on Jan 16 2022, 3,934 reads

The Gentle Road Home
"Back before Christmas, I led a weekend retreat in California. At its close, one of the retreatants presented me with The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness. I happen to be an admirer of the book's author, Gregory Boyle. Hes the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, "the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the world." Extravagant. Tenderness. ... posted on Jan 15 2022, 7,906 reads

As We Speak: Music Video
Through music, this video serves as a rallying cry and a call to action. It is a protest song, lamenting the inequalities in education, health care, justice, human rights, and many other areas that affect the lives of Black people. "No mother should have to tell her baby that others will avoid him, judge him, hate him, just for the color of his skin. What kind of world are we living in?" It urges ... posted on Jan 14 2022, 2,020 reads

Calligraphy-- A Sacred Tradition
"Ann Hechle is a major figure in contemporary western calligraphy. The breadth of her subject matter reflects a personal journey which has immersed her in the sacred literatures of the world. In this interview, she gives us privileged access to her magnum opus, her 'Journal', in which she explores the principles of form and order -- the sacred geometry -- which are the well-springs of the creative... posted on Jan 13 2022, 5,080 reads

Jane Hirshfield: The Fullness of Things
"The esteemed writer Jane Hirshfield has been a Zen monk and a visiting artist among neuroscientists. She has said this: 'It's my nature to question, to look at the opposite side. I believe that the best writing also does this... It tells us that where there is sorrow, there will be joy; where there is joy, there will be sorrow... The acknowledgement of the fully complex scope of being is why good... posted on Jan 12 2022, 4,680 reads

Are Cats Liquid?
"A liquid is traditionally defined as a material that adapts its shape to fit a container. Yet under certain conditions, cats seem to fit this definition. This somewhat paradoxical observation emerged on the web a few years ago and joined the long list of internet memes involving our feline friends. When I first saw this question it made me laugh, and then think. I decided to reformulate it to ill... posted on Jan 11 2022, 5,248 reads

Beings Seen and Unseen
"In this wide-ranging conversation, Amitav Ghosh talks about his latest book, "The Nutmeg's Curse," that explores our shared past, the root causes of climate change, and how climate change is intimately linked to colonialism, genocide, and structures of organized violence. He calls on storytellers to lead us in the necessary work of collective reimagining: decentering human narratives and re-cente... posted on Jan 10 2022, 3,487 reads

An Early Morning Revelation: Chuck St. John
At seventy years old, St. John recounts a remarkable experience that happened in the most ordinary of circumstances when he was 28 years old. "There was this taste of knowing [my family] like characters in some story I'd read about recently, or from a movie watched last night, as if I myself had not lived the story. It had all just happened to me as if I had been in a long dream. How did I get her... posted on Jan 09 2022, 2,677 reads

The Log- Year 2
There are some things we see without seeing, but in them a whole world is held unto themselves. For the last couple of years, wildlife photographer Robert Bush Sr. has had a trail camera situated above a stream in the Pennsylvania wilderness. The "log" videos are mesmerizing and entertaining, as we observe how integral this log is to the life of the forest. What appears to be just a log is so much... posted on Jan 08 2022, 3,670 reads