Author: Michael Stevens

If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions. This quote is attributed to Padmasambhava, the person...

Things seem unsettled lately (I know, a bit of an understatement). There is a pervasive pallor, a sickness, lying like a heavy shadow over our land. It is time for purification. It is time...

I’m walking down a sterile hallway in the hospital, trying to find Tarn’s room after her visit to the emergency room. The healthcare staff had advised me to go home and get a few...

While driving home from the Dharma Center the other day, I listened to a radio program about a challenging situation faced by a sister caring for her deaf and blind brother. The brother’s condition...

There are legends about two ancient lost continents and civilizations called Atlantis and Lemuria. Although many of the stories surrounding these places and people are meant to be symbolic representations of various human attributes...

Lichen is, literally, a fixture on our rocks and trees. It comes in many colors: drab gray, shades of green, vibrant orange, and everything in between. They may have tiny, leafless branches; flat leaf-like...

As the sun angles shift and the steep lines of winter approach, the juniper trees and ponderosa pines reflect a rusty ocher blush. The sun coaxes more intense color from tree bark and everything...

Masters of the Dzogchen tradition speak of our natural ability to experience life without preconceived notions as “fresh and unconditioned by anything.” This is our dakini nature—the spacious wisdom of our unconditioned state of...

“We have two lives, and the second one begins when we realize we have only one.” Confucius Sometimes I wonder if the Dharma comes to us, not through the great masters, but from the...

Another bird species that shows up at dusk to feed on aerial insect life is the Vaux’s swift. On this night, while sitting in the chairs at our campsite, we witness a sky ballet...