Category: Dharma Journal

One of the profound practices of the Buddhist tradition is to view all beings as if they were our parents in a past lifetime. We vow to repay their kindness. I am often asked...

It is said that repetition is more powerful than truth. What we repeat to ourselves, we will believe—even if it is a lie. We currently have a social media that is based upon repeating...

I think my mom is enlightened. She has dementia. The juxtaposition of these two statements might appear rather odd, but I am quite serious—in a way. Mom is in the moment. She only responds...

The fundamental mystery of the universe cannot be reduced to words. Mystery is like that. In Buddhist teachings we come across a mysterious word: emptiness. In the Sanskrit language the word is Śūnyatā. Śūnya...

I am hiking near a lake in the Cascade Mountains, meandering through a maze of deep cracks in the surrounding basalt flows. The trail emerges from the rocks and climbs to a knoll the...

The horizon is clear on the Oregon coast today. Blue sky meets a vast gray-green ocean without a perceptible dividing line. Terns fly inches above the surf as waves roll in, gently caressing the...

Our human body, mind, and emotions crave intimacy. We want to have close loving relationships. But the relationships we attract are affected by karma. Unliberated past experiences seem to surface in the context of...

I have been standing in line for three hours at the Antiques Road Show, waiting to get an appraisal of an old painting. I gaze out at the thousands of people here and reflect...

Western coralroot (corallorhiza mertensiana) is an orchid species common to Pacific Northwest conifer forests. It is a myco-heterotroph, meaning it feeds upon (parasitic to) a kind of fungus for its nutrition. And that fungus...

I am perched on a basalt boulder as I peer through strands of lovely fireweed and columbine toward a small a waterfall on Paulina creek. The roiling white caps flow over strands of deep green...