Blog
Sometimes I write
The blog posts below are dated. My new blog posts can be found at the link below. New blogs are posted every week on Tuesday. You’re invited to subscribe to recieve them in your inbox.
Ayurvedic Meditations For Love and Resilience
As I did my practice this morning, I was thinking about the activity of making offerings. It’s one of the activities of bhakti yoga, and interestingly enough, it’s one of the practices that helps us to cultivate resilience, which is clearly important for all of us in...
Integrated Preparation for the New Year
Integrated Preparation for the New Year New Years (winter solstice) is my favorite holiday. As a long time yin yoga teacher and student of all things 'yin', I'm enamored with darkness, mystery, turning inward, quiet reflection, gentle subterranean preparation, etc. I...
Our Inner Florence Nightingale
We all have times when we feel like we've been kicked in the teeth by life, when we've been stabbed in the back, or dragged through the mud. It's hard to know what to do in these times. We might be told to do 'self care', but that can seem abstract or meaningless....
Smiile! – Intelligence Increase
High on the top of my list of things I'm grateful for is my exposure to amazing teachers and teachings. There is a world of fraud out there, unhelpful teachings, ego maniacal charlatans, and simply ridiculous nonsense. I'll consider it grace that I've been continued...
Letting go of what doesn’t serve us, but, like for real
I've seen a hundred social media posts asking me what I want to let go of in 2017. and part of me thinks these memes are goofy, but at the same time, I do think about these things. We all have problems that have been problems for years. I certainly do. If you know me,...
The Untold Story of The Buddha, Part 1
Most of you probably know the story of the Buddha, when he left the castle and his princely upbringing for the first time, and was confronted with the harsh reality of the real world. First he saw an old man, then a sick man, and then a corpse. He asked his...
Widening and Narrowing the Meditative Focus
When I decided that I wanted to put a little more energy into writing about meditation, the first thing I discovered is that the writing started to take over the meditation. I sat down, took a few breaths, and start to practice whatever technique I was practicing, and...
Shamata, Purpose and Practice
“The purpose of meditation is to clear the mind of all thoughts, right?” - All the students I’ve been teaching meditation in my little corner of the world for quite some time now, and I’ve got some pretty sharp students. At this point, they have some pretty healthy...
Jungle Podcasting is Difficult
From the roof, I can see coconut palms, stretching out as far as the eye can see, in three directions. To the west, is the Arabian Sea, disappearing over the horizon. It’s gorgeous, and new, but totally posting a podcast is impossible. I take a morning walk to the...
Zen Poetry is Blowing My Mind Right Now, Man
What’s this? Am I mad again?
I went mad once, then again.
At every breath I’m happier.
I sneeze: an explosion of ash, puff!
The city blazes, disappears.Once again I’ll build myself
A house, fire-proof, pleasant.
I begin carting bricks, with others.
The cornerstone is laid, my dream
Indestructible. But Then I sneeze-
The city rises like the phoenix.
-Shinkichi Takahashi
Muddy Water is best Cleared By Leaving It Alone – Alan Watts
Muddy Water is best Cleared By Leaving It Alone - Alan Watts (from The Way of Zen) It is time to move away from the metaphor of 'mud as concept' and move into the understanding of 'mud as process'. We tend to think of our minds as a container, filled to the brim with...
First Day in Vrindavan
There were bramacharis from the San Diego ISKON temple in vrindavan the same time we were there. Young pink skinned boys in clean pink robes. You couldn't tell which was paler. One brown skinned boy, too. Carlos. Smart kid. He wore glasses, and kept them...
