Category: before the clearing

I have suffered from major depressive disorder and anxiety for 22 years, since I was […]

On June 29, 2015, I got nauseous. I have been nauseous every day since. This […]

We live in a culture that treats self-neglect as a virtue. To sacrifice your own […]

Life rarely offers clean distinctions. The paths we must take, the choices we face in […]

Gods: we project them first in the boldest of sketches, which sullen Fate keeps crumpling […]

How much of our lives do we spend in sadness, anger, frustration, and worry? Probably […]

In Buddhism there is the practice of taking refuge in the Buddha. But what does […]

We are a culture that fights change with everything we have. We deny it, delay […]

There is no moment of arrival on this path. No point at which we can […]

People often turn to spiritual practice hoping it will end suffering — that circumstances which […]

The mind is a restless thing. Thoughts arise from nowhere and dissolve back into nothing. […]

We have become, in a very real sense, cyborgs. Our phones, tablets, and laptops are […]

Violence is not new. It has been a constant presence throughout human history — in […]

No one causes us as much harm as we cause ourselves — not through dramatic […]

Every major contemplative tradition places compassion at the center of a genuinely fulfilled life. This […]

We are, by almost any historical measure, the most materially abundant people who have ever […]

We live in a world that wears busyness as a badge of honor. Ask someone […]

For most of my adult life I have lived with clinical depression. We are typically […]

The familiar currencies of power — wealth, status, physical appearance, social dominance — are not […]

A remarkable amount of human energy is spent managing the imagined opinions of others. We […]

The mind, left to its own devices, defaults to dissatisfaction. This is not a personal […]

When most of us are asked who we are, we respond with roles. Student. Writer. […]

What follows is my attempt to put into words something that is, at its deepest […]

the mind will never tell you that you have done enough. That is simply not […]

Something quietly catastrophic happens when we stop seeing another human being as fully human. It […]

The body is one of the most powerful gateways to awakening available to us — […]

To discover your limitations is the same as to discover your limitlessness. To discover your […]

A thirteen-year-old girl once told the teacher James Baraz that she had invented something in […]

The Buddha’s first Noble Truth is often misunderstood as pessimism. It is not. It is […]

In the cosmological frameworks of ancient India, Sanskrit was not merely a language. It was […]