Unarmed People of Color Killed by Police, 1999-2014 This Wednesday, I offered a dharma talk at Insight Meditation Community of Charlotte. After a 30-minute sit, we have a ritual where everyone says there name with a spacious breath. This ritual gives us a sense of connecting and belonging. As everyone finished, I offered a few names […]

Read my article “Soothing the Hot Coals of Rage” featured in Tricycle’s Fall 2014 issue.

Our beloved Angeles Arrien passed away unexpectedly last Thursday afternoon April 24, 2014.  Many knew her as a cultural anthropologist, educator, mediator, and author. I knew her as a shaman. I recall a time we had tea together in her Sausalito office. I believe it was in 1992. I had quit my corporate job and

Happy 95th Birthday President Nelson Mandela July 18, 1918 – July 18, 2013 As I reflect on the  birth, life, and impending death of Nelson Mandela, I feel tremendous warmth and gratitude for his generous spirit and devotion to peace and liberation for all beings. In so many ways, I honor him as a Beloved Bodhisattva.

We met standing in front of a mammoth Buddha figure in Beijing, China during the Women’s World Conference in 1995. Two black women with dreadlocks and flowing tears. In that speechless moment, Marlene managed to ask: Do you meditate? I said: Kinda. Within short time, we discovered we both lives in the Bay Area. She

We’re in a time where polarities are heightened, habits more rigid, past thoughts and future fears distort the present, and what we can’t control looms large. Collective movement is occurring and everyone is affected. We can feel it and we all have reactions to it–knowingly or unknowingly. Basically, we’re afraid. Our desire for something other

I’ve been thinking about character lately given our intense political climate of “character assignation.” It’s not that uncommon, really. As an organizational development consultant and leadership coach for many years, I’m intimate with how the emergence of any form of leadership is both covertly and openly attacked. Those of us courageous enough to take a

Imagine Trayvon Martin, 17, trapped, masking his powerlessness with a pumped up ego yet convinced that his life was about to end. What would you do? How might you feel? Have you ever felt this trapped or looked death in the eyes? How was your powerlessness felt and expressed? How are you living with your

There’s a growing craze that suggest that President Obama should openly express outrage, most recently over the Gulf Oil Spill. According to a recent News Week article, this demand for a show of presidential fury is not coming from a few people: “…New York Times columnists want to see Obama angry; the filmmaker Spike Lee

Why not make joy a habit. I’m not talking about superficial joy from external conditions or circumstances, but rather the joy that is our nature—something we open wide to and wallow in. For example, I awoke this morning to the sound of birds chirping. As I paused and sunk into this moment, allowing the sound