Your Mind Makes Out the Orange by Seeing It: Jack Kerouac on How to Explain Buddhism to Your Parents

“If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your parents,” spiritual teacher Ram Dass famously said. No matter how tough we may think we are, the ultimate test of faith often comes at the ruthless hammer of our parents’ judgement. Whether our belief shatters to pieces or stands like a rock depends on … Read more

The World Is Nothing But a Dream: Jack Kerouac on the Golden Eternity, Silence, and Emptiness

“To know nothing about yourself is to live. To know yourself badly is to think,” Fernando Pessoa wrote while contemplating moments of calm amid uncertainty and disquiet. “To know yourself in a flash, as I did in this moment, is to have a fleeting notion of the intimate monad, the soul’s magic word. But that … Read more

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel on the Deepest Peace

Sometimes, reading a book can be a profound meditation in itself — an experience where warmth and solitude merge together to soothe your whole being. Such is The Deepest Peace: Contemplations from a Season of Stillness by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel. Both an offering and meditation, her prose is rich with insights into transformation and mysteries of … Read more