by Hugh Byrne
How Our Spiritual Practice Can Support Us in these Difficult Times
Sixty years ago at the March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of the ‘fierce urgency of now,’ expressing the immediate and undeniable need for fundamental change to address the centuries-old history of oppression of Black Americans in the United States.

This image and metaphor—the fierce urgency of now—resonates powerfully today as we face unprecedented challenges …

by Bridget Rolens
When I teach mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) classes, I describe the stress reaction in this way: When the mind perceives a threat, it triggers the stress reaction (fight, flight or freeze). Muscles tighten, heart rate and blood pressure increase, and the mind becomes hyper alert to the perceived danger. When the mind perceives that the threat has been removed, it returns the mind and body to a relaxed state. This process served our hunter-gatherer ancestors well. It helped them react quickly to the dangers that threatened death or serious injury.

by Joe McCormack
I would like to share some observations about the heart qualities of wisdom and compassion, including the obstacles that the mind creates that block wisdom, compassion, generosity, patience, and loving kindness as well as the means of opening our hearts and relieving ourselves of the burden of the self.

by Mark Wiesman
The Pali word that is most often translated to “cultivate” (also develop, produce, call into existence) is bhavana, also often translated as “meditation”. We often overlook what bhavana can mean in the broader sense. In gardening, to cultivate can refer to the whole process of gardening, from preparing the soil, removing weeds, planting seeds, watering, tending, really everything in the process up to the eventual harvest that one hopes for.

by Phil Jones
Once upon a time a practitioner asked me:

Does sitting and trying to be mindful of what is happening in my mind, which sometimes isn’t easy, lead to progress, to an ability to have a more wholesome state of mind?

What came to my mind were two similes found in the Vāsijaṭa-sutta (The Discourse on the Adze).

by Mimi Eagleton

I clicked onto another zoom link, onto a screen filled with many squares, filled with many faces…unfamiliar ones and some I recognized as faces that I meditate with on a daily basis. Taking a few days for a supported, guided silent foray into internal landscapes is viewed by some as self-indulgent. It is so far from that for me sometimes I would that it were.