In faith-based organizing or spiritual movements, we rely on internal power a lot. We wear T-shirts that read, “What’s inside Matters.” We generate our own power. We don’t have material power, don’t have big lobbyists to pay, or a lot of wind at our back from the status quo. Thus, we go inside. We are powered by solar and wind…
Perhaps if we want to find happiness, we should design for it. We’ve met many sincere practitioners of many faiths who follow a path or practice but still feel as though their lives are not fulfilled or transformed. They have a deep division in their lives between their “ordinary” lives of work, school, and family and their “faith” lives. We…
Like the rings on a tree, once again, Holy Week is upon us, marking another cycle of celebrating and entering into the life that culminated in the mysterious events that shook the world 2000 years ago in a small, out-of-way province of the Roman empire. The reverberations continue to be felt down to the present time and will doubtlessly be…
The rich, brown-black soil crumbles in my fingers, cool and just slightly moist as I rake my hands through a garden bed that will soon be planted with carrots. It’s a mild day in mid-March and the sun is shining, warming the back of my neck and the surface of the soil while I pick out the last remnants of…
Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein was once waiting for take-out in a restaurant and the man helping him talked about a dream of moving to Wyoming. He longed for the open space, the beauty. Joseph said to the fellow, “You know, there’s an inner Wyoming.” This story always makes me smile when I think of Joseph, in the middle of a…
The German filmmaker Werner Herzog once declared “tourism is sin, and travel on foot virtue.” He should know, having once walked all the way from Munich to Paris. His larger point here refers to the authenticity and primacy of physically experiencing and interacting with a place, in contrast to more passive and modern modes of travel. The faster we travel…
In 2016, while trekking in New Zealand’s Fjordland National Park, my wife and I were inundated by three straight days of rain. It made for a grueling trek; our gear was soaked through, our packs weighed down by water, and every part of our bodies was sore. Each day we wondered aloud if it would have been better to have…
Leading up to the Westchester Buddhist Center’s sixth annual retreat at the Garrison Institute on February 16-23, 2018, Derek Kolleeny discusses the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one here. In the second part of this series on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (FFM), we will look at the unique presentation of…