On Writing More Clearly
"Here, in short, is what I want to tell you.

Know what each sentence says,

What it doesn't say,

And what it implies.

Of these, the hardest is knowing what each sentence actually says."

Verlyn Klinkenborg teaches creative writing at Yale and is a former member of the editorial board of the New York Times, he shares more in ... posted on Mar 14 2023, 2,472 reads

What Happens in Mindfulness
"Like mom and apple pie, mindfulness has an unassailable reputation for virtue and wholesomeness. But what actually goes on in the brain and the psyche to deliver the goods? What are we actually signing up for when we embrace a path of mindfulness? In this important new book John Teasdale deftly weaves a course between the Scylla of cognitive science and the Charybdis of classic spiritual teaching... posted on Mar 13 2023, 3,372 reads

Zen TV
"How many of you know how to watch television?" I asked my class one day. After a few bewildered and silent moments, slowly, one by one, everyone haltingly raised their hands. We soon acknowledged that we were all 'experts,' as Harold Garfinkle would say, in the practice of 'watching television.'"This short excerpt by Bernard McGrane provides a profound thought experiment that can help us "wake up... posted on Mar 12 2023, 23,719 reads

Why Do We Not Sing These Things as Miracles?
"You will say to me that time passeth, that What Was is now only memory, that we cannot reclaim or resurrect that which is inarguably past, but I am going to quibble about this, and quiz and question you hard and close, for I dont even have to shut my eyes and it is six in the morning, long ago and right now, far away and right here, and it is snowing heavily, and there is a silvery shiver to the ... posted on Mar 11 2023, 2,093 reads

IntraConnected: Discovering MWe (Me + We)
"We may have a mental understanding that all of life is one inseparable whole, yet how do we actually feel into this reality? And how do we relate to others and the world from this felt awareness? Dr. Daniel J. Siegel is a visionary creative thinker, professor, and founder of the field of interpersonal neurobiology. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Siegel about his book IntraConnected: ... posted on Mar 10 2023, 2,290 reads

Amishi Jha: Pay Attention to Your Attention
Amishi P. Jha came to her pathbreaking work studying the neuroscience of mindfulness and attention when, as a young professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, she lost feeling in her teeth. She had been grinding them as a profound stress response to burnout from her responsibilities as a wife, mother, and tenure-track professor. Knowing from her academic work that the b... posted on Mar 09 2023, 4,728 reads

Translation Lessons from Superlichen
"Until the late nineteenth century, lichens were understood as individual organisms. It was then suggested, controversially, that a lichen was, in fact, a partnership. The division between the partners might have been invisible at first, but underneath a microscope, it was plain as day: a lichen was a pact between a fungus and an alga. Scientists began to speak of symbiosis: not survival of the fi... posted on Mar 08 2023, 1,495 reads

When I Touched the Ground
"Nyurpaya Kaika Burton is a respected and revered senior artist, educator, storyteller and cultural leader. She is also one of the few remaining poetic speakers of Pitjantjatjara, a traditional Indigenous language of Central Australia's remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. There were once more than 400 traditional languages spoken across the Australian continent, but only arou... posted on Mar 07 2023, 1,604 reads

Asymmetry & the Art of Generous Creation
"As an artist or writer, how do you compose a work that is generous? How do you place a group of rocks together in a garden, or branches, berries and blossoms together in an ikebana arrangement,-- or ideas and language on a page -- to invite real participation? The artist is giving a gift, I think, if she leaves some connections unfinished. Implied. The artist is giving a gift, I think, when the c... posted on Mar 06 2023, 2,442 reads

Mink! Champion of Title IX
If you're a woman who played sports, or have girls or women in your life who did or do, then you will want to see this remarkable story that explains who made that possible. This short documentary tells the story of Title IX through the eyes of Wendy, daughter of the amazing Patsy Takemoto Mink, a Japanese American from Hawaii who became the first woman of color elected to the U.S. Congress. The f... posted on Mar 05 2023, 1,131 reads