Author: Michael Stevens

When traveling in Kenya way back in 1975, I was humbled by a gentle man with a disarming smile. He lived amidst very challenging circumstances—barely supporting a family of five. They lived in a...

So many lost doors Doors to hidden memories Some happy things Others wished to be forgotten Rising up at night They flavor what I see Apparitions cloaked in symbol Wisdom’s inviting mask  In dreamlike...

When I chose the name for our Dharma center 25 years ago, I reflected on how mind and nature are interconnected. The Buddhist teachings seem to reflect that connection by suggesting the natural flow...

A herd of ten mule deer are bedded down in our front yard as if this is their home, at least for now. They exhibit little fear when I open the door to greet...

I have a nighttime dream in which I see a skull floating in the sky. The skull is round and joyful, a cartoonish image with a blindfold covering its eye sockets. All of a...

Dudjom Lingpa, the source of our close lineage, once posed a powerful question to his personal yidam (archetype of his enlightened self). He asked, “…emptiness [our original nature] seems to be without benefit and...

When Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment, he was called Buddha, the ‘awakened one.’  He awoke from the slumber in which we separate our relative experience from the absolute nature of things. Buddha saw our relative...

On a recent trip to New Mexico, I was staying in a town about 80 miles (as the crow flies) from Trinity Site, the location of the first nuclear bomb test. As I looked...

I heard an NPR report on the spread of Coronavirus in South Dakota. Some of the folks who died from the disease held onto the view, until their last breath, that Covid-19 was a...

The Deschutes River speaks of change on this last truly warm day before winter begins its icy descent. The water roars through a canyon and then softens into a quiet meander—framed by red-barked willows...