Tomorrow I head to Washington DC to see Kelly! Too tired (it’s now nearly 1am after lots of packing and preparing) to say much more. This has been an amazing month; I can hardly believe all that has happened. Wonderful, wonderful! (moments of sadness too, of course, but hopefully those too will all find their silver lining) How fitting it is to have the privilege of seeing off July with the woman I love in our nation’s capital. Oh, how... Read more

This week’s chapter of Matthieu Ricard’s Book, Happpiness: A Guide to Cultivating Life’s Most Important Skill, was entitled “The Alchemy of Suffering.” He begins with the tale of an ancient Persian king who asks his wise friend to write him a history of man and the world. His friend returns years later with 60 volumes, “too much!” cries the busy king. So, some years later the wise friend returns with fewer volumes, still too much, and years later he has... Read more

The UnknownAs we know,There are known knowns.There are things we know we know.We also knowThere are known unknowns.That is to sayWe know there are some thingsWe do not know.But there are also unknown unknowns,The ones we don’t knowWe don’t know. — (Roshi) Donald Rumsfeld Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing Reading Kelly’s latest work, I was delighted to find her quoting the pithy wisdom of this great enlightened being. In reference to the looting of the Baghdad Museum... Read more

As a Buddhist I believe that I need to know myself before I can effectively transcend my self. Toward that goal, these past couple years have found me reflecting ever more deeply on the places, people, and events that have shaped me, this ego, here, now. I had dinner the other night with some Buddhist friends and one told me the story of… I think it was Adi Da’s brother… who had a major spiritual emergence and then went around... Read more

Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. – Unknown Wishing you peace. (from here) Thanks to Kelly for leading me to this and much, much more. Read more

I’ve been working on a reading group with friends lately, covering Matthieu Ricard’s book, “Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill.” Unfortunately summer’s heat and attractive alternatives seem to be taking their toll and attendance is spotty at best. It’s a trend across the board, I visited the FWBO center here a month or so ago and it was relatively dormant, and I missed Sunday teachings (in my own house!) this week – sleeping off the half marathon... Read more

“I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.” – Jesse Owens Well I did it, a half marathon, 13.1 miles, over 20 kilometers. And I feel great. And I’ll do it again, and soon enough... Read more

Two stories and a song have recently caught my eye. The first story chronicles recent developments down in Arizona with Geshe Michael Roach, his students, and other Buddhist groups in and around Tucson. It tells of John Brady, a student of Geshe Michael who I had the pleasure of meeting in Ireland back in 2005 (which spurred a chain of events bringing me to Tucson to see H.H. the Dalai Lama that September), who has been working to preserve ancient... Read more

We spend a lot of our lives searching for happiness, it seems, and never quite finding it. In my conversations with people about finding happiness there has been a surprising trend: those who have found happiness weren’t looking for it, weren’t expecting it, and those who are unhappy seem to mull on about their searches for happiness. And those who are searching usually point to something out there, the right partner, the right job, or the right place to live,... Read more

FOOD Every once in a while I purchase something a bit extravagant, wacky, and/or otherwise outside my somewhat simple routine. Tonight that purchase came in a bucket, in fact it came in 275 servings of Emergency Food Supply, 23 pounds worth, packed in a white 5 gallon bucket. To be honest, I have been watching this bucket for months now. It has been at Costco, home of many “buy it, it’s cheap! – No! live simply” debates in my head.... Read more