Buddhism

Alan Watts Puts Us In Our Place

When a friend threw THIS over our transom, we felt instantly better. Clarifying, heartening, it pulled us out of our heads into just the right place.

Marsha Linehan on Building a Life Worth Living

We got interested in psychotherapist Marsha Linehan after a reader told us that it was she who first used the Buddhist concept of Radical Acceptance as a therapeutic tool in psychotherapy. It was a groundbreaking approach, as were the treatments she pioneered for patients who were previously written off as hopeless. The story of how she developed it — as a young woman she had been one of those “impossible” patients — is a marvel of resourcefulness and creativity.

Radical Acceptance with Biscuits (Tara Brach, Ed Brown)

When I hear the word “radical” used in the context of personal change —whether a book, a course, a workshop — I generally pass it by. It’s so overused and overblown, I’ve come to mistrust it. But in the past few months, I’d heard a number of smart, curious, level-headed people mention Tara Brach’s book, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. Among the trove of very wise and helpful ideas, I especially love this passage about saying yes, perfection, self-comparison and….biscuits.

Alan Watts’ on Laughter and Anxiety

After David Saltman described his remarkable experience seeing Alan Watts give a talk in the 1970s, we hunted down some video of the essential astonishing lesson. Which led to way more…

A Modern Mantra That Helps Frame Difficulty and Change

Lately, we’ve found ourselves saying an unusual mantra when we hit difficult situations. It affords an instant, very interesting shift of view, as do the lovely flower mandalas we stumbled upon about the same time.

Laurie Anderson and John Cage’s Wonderful Conversation Long Ago (Two Heroes!)

A digital walkabout took us a 1992 edition of Tricycle, the great Buddhist magazine, where Laurie Anderson interviews Cage, then 80 years old. Here are some catalytic bits:

A Practice of Letting Go of Obsessive Thoughts You Can Do Anywhere (John Cage + Huang Po)

There are twenty-one post-it notes in my copy of Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists: each an illuminating and useful tool. Here is a favorite.

‘a fearless proclamation of what’s possible for ordinary people’ (Pema Chodron)

We were stunned at how perfect these words from Pema Chodron are in this very unsettling time and how much they teach on a purely personal level.

Mindful Eating’s Role Model, via Al Hirschfeld

When I was a kid, the legendary carciaturist Al Hirschfeld gave my father this drawing of a French gastronome savoring escargots in a Paris bistro. Nobody had to tell this guy about Mindful Eating. He’s a model for for it.

Practice Losing Farther, Faster (Elizabeth Bishop)

The other day we came across the shorn trunk of huge tree that had been taken down by the Parks Department. We looked close and tried to count the rings but got lost in the swirls and changes in its three-foot span. It is one of those everyday losses that reminded us of others, and of the Elizabeth Bishop poem “One Art”*, in which the antidote to loss lies hidden.

Allen Ginsberg: How to Be

The past few mornings, our reading has been Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews with the poet Allen Ginsberg. Most of the interviews are very long, except one It asked a single question about how to balance working for obvious fortune and the creative life, concerns that resonate with just about everyone we know. Ginsberg’s answer totally blew us away. (We recommend…

Reflecting on Difficulty: 5 Questions that Transform

At the height of a recent crisis a few months ago, our friend Chris Eldredge send me this note: I’ve been reading Jack Kornfield’s “A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life” and saw this. I thought it might interest you. ( I changed a bit of the wording where…

Unusual Paths: Why Give Up Celebrity to Become a Buddhist Nun?

In this quiet, yet curiously fast-moving 7-minute video portrait, Chudrun explains what led her away from a life of celebrity, drugs and materialism at the host of BBC’s Top Gear to one of reflection, compassion and ritual as a Buddhist nun. Her leap onto what might seem an opposite path and the willingness to change is at the very heart of improvising.