Tag: change
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Paths to Peace: A Libya-Tibet Nexus in Switzerland
By chance, I’m in Geneva at the same time as a stream of black cars full of world leaders, and we’re on peace missions of different sorts. Events of the past two weeks spur reflection on the ways in which their big mission and my little one intersect. I arrived in Switzerland feeling brow-furrowed about…
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Ground Game: Purple People Power
I just came home from a fascinating, exhilarating, and exhausting election day volunteering for the Obama campaign in Colorado. And before I get on with the the story, in the current climate I guess I’d better say why. First, full disclosure: I’m not registered with any political party. I do believe it’s my responsibility as…
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Zen and the Jazz of Green Building in India
From the Earthville Blog: The biggest news on the construction of the Dharmalaya Institute is in regard to our race against time to get the roof on our baby building before the onslaught of the monsoon rains this month… and the update is that, well, we couldn’t win, so we’ve done our best to change the…
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The Rising Canal and Other Changes
Buongiorno from Venice, which i thought i’d better see before it sinks much further. Lately, it’s flooding more frequently and more severely, and it’s chilling to drift around this jewel of history and imagine that, within as few as 20 years (if some scientists’ predictions come true) the first floor or two of every building…
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A Joyful Noise!
Sawadee khap from the warm waves of Thailand! Happy to be hOMe again. Conveniently, i feel that way almost anywhere i go… and yet there’s this familiar flavor of effortless contentment on some of my favorite patches of Asian soil. The static subsides… Mozzies & the Matrix Last month in Bodhgaya (where the Buddha formerly…
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Dubya & the Sublime Lotus
After the intensity of our inner and outer experiences of recent weeks, my friend Artyom and i were ready for a holiday. We hired a jeep to Sikkim, had good talks and good momos, and then he caught a jeep eastward to Rumtek Monastery (the exile HQ of the previous Karmapa, though the Indian government still…
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Rocked in the Many Arms of Mama India
As the sagacious space swami Bonzai Baba taught (in the Garland of Pop-Culture Pith Sutra, IIRC), “Wherever you go, there you are.” Well, one thing about India is, somehow, wherever you go, there’s even more of you. More than any other place i’ve been, India has the mysterious power of reflecting whatever one brings to…
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Long, Hollow Bones
I can breathe again…. 🙂 When i arrived at Tao Garden, my breathing was shallow. I didn’t realize how shallow it had become, because, well… i guess i forgot to breathe for the last year or so. But after just a few days of chi kung, yoga, meditation, and simply breathing mindfully, my chest is…
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Taoist Tune-Up
Sawasdee khap from the Universal Tao Garden, home of the Inner Smile and observatory of the Microcosmic Orbit, where you can avail of free Wi-Fi access sipping garcinia tea in the dining pagoda while waiting to get your chi circulated, your blood ozonated, your arteries chelated, and your colon irrigated — all before lunch, and…
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Middle Way Course Correction
Something magic happens when everything familiar is removed from the outside, and all that’s left is (imaginary) me… same old me, new world (or, as one of my old songs goes, “Same Planet, Different Universe”). Kinda like a ginormous sensory deprivation tank but with lots of other auspiciously random people in it, it reflects me…