Preventing a Third World War

Photo by Andhika Y. Wiguna on Unsplash Will the rice fields stay green? Will the old forest still turn its leaves? These are strange questions to open with when the subject is nuclear weapons and the possibility of a third world war — and yet they may be exactly...

Love Is a Process of Investment

Photo by Bhuvanesh Gupta on Unsplash Most of us treat love as something that either happens to us or doesn’t — a stroke of luck, a chemistry we either have with someone or don’t. A different way of seeing it is less romantic on the surface but, in...

The Buddha Land Is Everywhere

This piece also has a short companion video below — a few quiet minutes on the same idea, if you’d rather watch and listen before reading on. There is a dewdrop on a branch outside most people’s windows most mornings, and almost none of us stop to look at...

Spreading the Mind of Loving-Kindness

It is easy to love the people who already love us back. A child, a partner, an old friend — the warmth flows without effort, because it is met with warmth. The harder question is what happens to that same warmth when we picture someone who has hurt us. For most of us,...

The Practice of Deep Listening

There is a particular silence that happens in the middle of an argument — not the silence of listening, but the silence of waiting. One person stops talking. The other is already composing what to say next. Nothing is being received. Two people, both convinced they...