On Rosh Hashanah Sunday, someone asked a poignant question. She wondered what to do? Yom Kippur is coming, the holiest of days of atonement, repentance, and she’s not ready to forgive – not at all. Her fear about facing this day without doing what is required reminded me of being a young girl and wondering… Continue reading →

Earlier this year, a man who played professional football with the NFL for a few years came to sit with us at InsightLA. As we talked, he described how he gave his all to the game. Like some other players, he chose to use the power of his visibility as a pro athlete to call… Continue reading →

“The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur so quietly; any other loss – an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. – is sure to be noticed.” —Søren Kierkegaard Right after I turned 22, I became a mom. It took a while to integrate this new reality. I remember having a… Continue reading →

Once when I was teaching at a Spirit Rock retreat years ago, Jack was giving the evening dharma talk, I was so tired that I fell sound asleep like a child listening to a bedtime story. I was sitting up straight in perfect cross-legged posture on the stage right in front of everyone in the… Continue reading →

Last Saturday, the InsightLA teachers gathered for another day of exploration of inclusion and diversity. Together we’re putting the magnifying glass of mindfulness on top of our organization to better see where any of us might be reflecting the conditioned racism of our society. With the heartbreaking divisiveness and suffering around racism so currently visible,… Continue reading →

Photo: Kobun Chino Roshi (far left) and Mu Deung Sunim (far right) pose with Trudy Goodman and George Bowman at their wedding reception. This past year, we’ve witnessed several Buddhist communities reeling from reports of serious teacher misconduct. When you’ve been around as long as I have, you remember that every decade there’s a spate… Continue reading →

Yesterday evening I was sitting on the beach at sunset, mesmerized by a flock of surfers bobbing on the waves, lit by the last pink light as the sun went down behind the mountains. I jumped into the ocean and played in the surf alongside some children I heard speaking French. A joyful toddler made… Continue reading →

Walking on ancient stone floors uneven from centuries of footsteps, stepping over bronze plaques commemorating trials and beheadings for high treason and state visits of yore, under the soaring vaulted beams of the 13thcentury Westminster Hall, the ceiling like a huge upside-down ship, we marvel our way through majestic medieval buildings gently sinking into the… Continue reading →

Our mindfulness rests on a foundation of compassion. It works like this: as we become more compassionately aware of our own suffering, we can perceive the suffering of others more accurately. A growing sense of being part of one family comes from cultivating loving awareness of our similarity as human beings, our oneness. As this… Continue reading →

I’ve been spending time with a close friend, a deep practitioner who recently had surgery. He’s in a lot of physical pain as he recovers. Pain is hard to bear. On top of that, we tend to judge ourselves for the way we manage it. Even the Buddha had backaches as he grew older; there… Continue reading →