I was listening to “Touching the Eternal,” a recording of seven-day India retreat organized by a spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. Toward the end of the audio book, what I assume was the last day of the retreat, a woman rose up from the audience to offer something unusual — a poem she wrote in the … Read more
It has been said that solitude is the place of purification. It has also been said that the great omission in American life is solitude … that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incinerator of the spirit. Indeed, enjoying your own company can be a great catalyst for … Read more
The first thing people usually learn about Buddhism is that it’s aimed at ending human suffering. This is what newcomers like to discuss online when trying to deepen their understanding. And this is what one Redditor did when he asked, “If life has suffering, why not just try to numb yourself with goals (seeing beautiful … Read more
As a lay follower of the Buddha, I sometimes think about enlightenment. “What does it feel like to live as an enlightened person?” I ask myself before I close my eyes and sit down to meditate. It’s not a question that comes up often in my daily practice. But when it does, my thoughts and … Read more