I would never go so far as to consider myself a master gardener. But we do have some plants in the house. And most of them seem to be doing ok. Or perhaps the fact that we toss the dead ones is enough to explain why most of the plants in our house are mostly green. In any case, one of the annoying challenges I face as a pseudo-budding gardener is that all these plants keep growing: Instead of “staying put”, they get big, they hit the ceiling, they encroach on the territory of

When we were kids, we used to play a game called “whack-a-mole”. I’m assuming many people are familiar with it: A table full of holes, and a little (robot) critter that would pop out of one of them at random, while we tried to hit it with a hammer. Rather sadistic, if you think about it… But the point was to try to guess which hole that “mole” would pop out of. If we were really going to take the game seriously, we might have found a way to stuff up all the holes except one,

I saw a play once… It was essentially about a group of people who were looking for the answer - to everything. There was a bad guy who was rich, and a young girl who was helpless. And the heroes were wandering from place to place, yearning for meaning, and some kind of happiness that seemed, throughout the play, quite vague, and elusive. Last night, I watched a speech online with my wife. It was very well-spoken. It was about fear, and love, and the powers that be, and how we

What did the Buddha teach? Right speech Right action Right livelihood Right effort Right mindfulness Right focus Right understanding Right resolve Many people are probably already familiar with this - his “Noble Eightfold Path”. Give or take some differences in translation, that part is easy. There are also countless explanations, from throughout the ages, of what each of these aspects refers to: What is meant by understanding? What is meant by livelihood? But for all the tex

I heard once about a musician who got caught harassing women. He had had a successful career. But now he was losing everything, and it happened almost overnight. He himself was amazed by the level of rage that flooded into his world, and washed away everything he had worked for. And so he began to think of how he could make amends. His idea was to put out a new album, and donate all of its proceeds to an organization that supported victims of sexual abuse. I remember hearing

How many people meditate around the world? The common estimates are about half a billion, though I find that hard to believe, when more than half the people in India alone (population 1.2 billion) say that they meditate regularly. In any case, I think we can safely say that meditation is a popular thing. And how many people devote their entire lives to meditation? This is far harder to assess, but there seem to be at least a million monks and nuns out there - perhaps as many

Meditation is like walking backwards: Thoughts come, and you catch them as they come. Sensations pass in and out of your awareness. As...

It is a sad and tragic truth that we all have to journey for an entire lifetime before finding the most fundamental solutions to our...

It has become so difficult to get into a state of mind for writing lately, that I often find that the only things I can write about are...

Why is it so hard to write these days? For the first couple of months after October 7, I managed to put something out. After that, I...

Over the ages, we have learned to live alongside one another even though we have different points of view. But how do we do this?...

It’s so hard to write these days. It’s not that there isn’t anything to write about… On the contrary, there is plenty. But it’s so hard...

Why do couples fall apart? Why do lovers leave each other? Why do people get divorced? I mean… let’s be realistic: They break up for any...

Should I even be writing? God knows. I’m so tired. I feel like the last meaningful word was wasted miles and miles behind me, now sitting...

Isn’t it tempting to believe that Buddha was never angry? It doesn’t really show up in his stories, or on any of his statues. It’s very...

I apologize that this blog post is arriving on the late side. I was sitting on the plane to Israel and writing this out, when it became...

I love how the sun and the earth are, in so many ways, like lovers. The sun penetrates the earth with light, and the earth provides the...

I’m a competitive person. I’ve pushed myself to be “better than” at a lot of things throughout my life - from school, to music, to...

I think we are all familiar with the Rage Stage, aren’t we? Something goes wrong between you and another person, and you’re mad. You’re...

Not long ago, I performed with a group of musicians whose country is facing an existential threat. It seems like that applies to so many...