Sharon Salzberg came into my life a few years ago when I stumbled upon her Metta Hour podcast — a chance encounter that revealed the host to be the voice of kindness and compassion in today’s fractured world. Of all the episodes I’ve listened, my favorite one is called “Foundations of Forgiveness.” Why this particular … Read more

The story goes that when a thief broke into a little hut at the foot of a mountain, the wise Zen master Ryokan, very much undisturbed by the intruder, welcomed him with open arms and said, “You have come a long way to visit me and you should not return empty-handed.” And then, in a … Read more

If you’re looking for books by Andy Puddicombe, you’ve probably seen his TED talk on mindfulness. What struck me most the first time I saw it is that we spend 47% of our time lost in thought — that’s almost half of our waking hours spent ruminating on the past or being anxious about the … Read more

“I am committed to the view the whole point and joy of human life is to integrate the spiritual with the material, the mystical with the sensuous, and the altruistic with a kind of proper self-love,” writes Alan Watts in his book In My Own Way: an Autobiography. “So I have always done things in … Read more