All night I could not sleep because of the moonlight on my bed. I kept on hearing a voice calling: Out of Nowhere, Nothing answered "yes." ~attributed to the poetess Zi Ye sometime between 6th-3rd century BCE (transl. Arthur Waley) I will be offering a 2-year online Dharma program, starting in late April of this year--2019-2021. We will allow the teachings to emerge from the field of our practice, commitment, friendliness, and silence. Participants will take initiative

Kathleen Dowling Singh: ~Dying is safe. ~Our fear of death is grounded in a strong sense of the 'I'" ...a transformation from perceived tragedy to experienced grace. I realized that what I had been witnessing in the process of dying was grace, all around, shimmering and penetrating. I became aware that all of the observed qualities of the Nearing Death Experience point to the fact that there is profound psychoalchemy occurring here, a passage to deeper being. There appears

Another old CD coming back to life--Handel's Messiah-- has kept me company driving in the rain this week. Listening and singing along brought me to some kind of intersection-- a Monty Python-esque funny bone, the majestic sweep of harmonies, and a kinship felt in ancient shepherd poetry. Within all the absurdity and vastness, we're not so different after all, so then what? I had not paid as much attention to three passages that stood out this week: "All we like sheep," "Why

Atul Gawande raises questions that help us be as perfectly imperfect as we are--mortal and holding very specific things precious. He suggests that doctors ask us, "What are you priorities? What are you willing to sacrifice?" I would broaden those very questions, to help us not only die, but also live gracefully. These very questions could help us uncover an unconditional willingness to center our lives around what we hold most precious. Not only to say, Okay, life will not b

I don't always like to use this kind of question--we don't need to earn life by being useful. So many people have a nagging feeling that something is wrong with them, and hope to get rid of that feeling by getting busy, or by being useful. What are we here for? Perhaps, if we can go beyond the purposes that human mind's can devise, we may talk about a way of being here that is fulfilling. A calling that is challenging. A challenge that is fruitful. A fruitfulness that bring

Knowing we are okay, even in all our weirdness and tenderness, can give rise to the joy and confidence that makes our spiritual path come alive. Even for especially difficult trauma and pain, okayness can be a good ground to heal from. This half-hour podcast will go live at 12:30 pm European time on Monday, December 18. And you can listen to the podcast any time after that, too: http://tobtr.com/s/10468245 #DharmatalkBlogradio #mystery #meditation #traumahealing

Penguins as tall as a man of medium height, for millions of years, life thriving on earth after the extinction of dinosaurs. 20 million years before whales came along. Just cool. Life is as whimsical in its breadth as our imaginations, and more. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/12/570136162/giant-prehistoric-penguins-once-swam-off-the-coast-of-new-zealand #nature #mystery

Martin Rees with Krista Tippett on "...deeper mystery,... ... related to the nature of space itself. There’s evidence, ... in the last 10 years or so that even empty space, when you take away all the dark matter and all the atoms, still exerts a kind of force. It exerts a sort of push or tension on everything.... ...even empty space has a kind of structure, and we don’t understand that at all. In fact, uh, most of us would guess that empty space does have a structure but on a