The below is an edited excerpt from Brach’s Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. A traditional folk tale tells the story of a man who becomes so frightened by his own shadow that he tries to run away from it. He believes that if only he could leave it behind, he would then be happy.…
At a recent Wisdom Talk that the Garrison Institute co-presented with 92nd Street Y, On Being‘s Krista Tippett spoke with Garrison Institute Board Member Andrew Zolli about her new book Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living. (Read an excerpt of Becoming Wise.) Some of the key questions they discuss: What are the raw materials of…
Josh Korda is the presiding teacher at Dharma Punx NYC in New York. During the recent Lion’s Roar retreat at the Garrison Institute, he spoke with us about how to handle difficult emotions and the importance of creating a “spiritual container.”
We recently partnered with the New York Open Center to present a talk by renowned British spiritual teacher Rupert Spira. The title of the talk was “The Essence of Nonduality” and Spira explored the nondual understanding that lies at the heart of various spiritual traditions, such as Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Buddhism, mystical Christianity, Zen and Sufism. Spira emphasized that we can investigate the…
As part of our “Garrison Talks at the JCC” event series, teachers and authors Sharon Salzberg and Rev. angel Kyodo williams recently discussed ways to bridge spiritual practice and social activism. Some of the key questions explored: Does spiritual practice require that we love everyone? Does being happy mean that we avoid conflict? How can we speak differently about spiritual practice and…
Leading up to Joanna Macy’s 2016 retreat “Rainer Maria Rilke and the Force of the Storm,” exploring the work of Rainer Maria Rilke in the context of her well-know experiential seminar called “The Work That Reconnects,” journalist Andrew Revkin spoke with Macy about what Rilke has to offer those working on behalf of the planet and the increasing need to…
This post is in honor of World Humanitarian Day 2016. Four years ago, I was one year into my humanitarian aid mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Picture this: My chest is tight, my hands are jittery, and my stomach is in knots. I have just returned from my last intended “R&R” and can already feel my resistance to stress evaporating. The…
Alison Moritsugu is an artist whose work explores how our idealized images of the natural world shape our concepts about it. In her log paintings, she paints idyllic landscapes in the Hudson River School style on the cross sections of trees, which, as she notes on her website, complicates the image because “any sense of nostalgia or celebration of nature…