“A spiritual tradition is not a shallow stream in which one dips one foot and retreats to the shore, it’s a mighty tumultuous river that rushes through one’s life.”– Bhikkhu Bodhi As one year morphs into the next, it’s a good time to pause and ask what you most want for 2019? Asking an… Continue reading
Today is the solstice, the first day of winter, when Earth’s axis tilts the Northern Hemisphere farthest from the sun’s warmth. It’s the shortest day and the longest night of the year. This year a full moon (called the Cold Moon, or the Long Night Moon, by Native Americans) coincides with the solstice, along with… Continue reading
For years, my vision couldn’t be corrected properly with glasses. Unlike most people, I’ve been waiting eagerly for the time to have cataract surgery where a new lens can be put into the eye. Usually it’s a simple, routine procedure, but with some damage to my corneas, it’s trickier. Thursday was the surgery on the… Continue reading
When I was little, I wanted to know about money, and why some people were called rich. I asked my mother, “Are we rich?” My father was an academic and my mother a homemaker who sewed and ironed our clothes and froze our tuna sandwiches in bulk. After they defrosted in our lunch boxes we… Continue reading
Thanksgiving is a time when people send out messages of gratitude; for community, food, friendship, and family. I’m grateful for the joy of loving our community and this beautiful land where we live. I’m endlessly grateful for the immense, wordless beauty of nature. And I’m also feeling grateful for difficulties. They can keep us awake,… Continue reading
35 years ago, Adelaide Harrison, a kind white-haired lady from South Africa visiting her son Gavin in New England, confided to me in a hushed voice when he left the room, “He only does what he wants to do!” She was shocked at her son’s commitment to listening to his body and trusting his intuition… Continue reading
All of us at InsightLA want to share our deep sadness for the tragic events that occurred at the Tree of Life Synagogue and the shooting Friday at a yoga studio in Tallahassee. Places of worship, sharing, community, or just somewhere that we can simply sit quietly – are sacred spaces. These spaces, and all… Continue reading
For years when I was young, I struggled with a kind of low-level anxiety, as though something nameless and forgotten was always nipping at my heels. My relationships, passionate at first, always seemed to end in dissatisfaction. My mind jumped around, and I followed it. When I found this practice, it was hard for me… Continue reading
Yesterday Jack and I drove to Mexico with our InsightLA board member Butch Schuman, Tere Romano, an InsightLA teacher from Mexico and her daughter Fredel, and Rosamaria Segura from our Facilitator Training, who created mindfulness classes in two shelters in the border city of Tijuana. In the women’s shelter, there are countless little children playing… Continue reading
Christiane Wolf, Joslyn Hitter, Martin Vitorino and I just returned from the InsightLA fall meditation retreat in Lucerne Valley. There, the windswept mountains are strewn across a vast valley under the towering blue sky. The ridges and mesa seem impossibly desolate at first glance – lunar, stark, bleak. It takes time to see the beauty… Continue reading