Archive for the Buddhism category

What does yoga have to do with peacekeeping or Afghanistan?

Friday, March 5th, 2010

What does yoga have to do with my work as a human rights advocate or peace-builder?

Tags: Afghanistan, peace, peacekeeping, pema chodron, Yoga
Posted in Afghanistan, Being the change, Buddhism, Yoga | 6 Comments »

‘Bodisattva’ made simple: Taking a vow to help others

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

What does it mean to take the bodhisattva vow? Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche says it means “taking a vow to help others”, and becoming open to the world that we are living in.

Tags: bodisattva, Buddhism, meditation, namaste, Yoga
Posted in Being the change, Buddhism | 2 Comments »

More on whether or not it is “better” to practice only one type of yoga

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

A follow up post looking at different views on whether or not it is “better” to stick with only one type of yoga.

Tags: spiritual practice, styles, Yoga
Posted in Being the change, Buddhism, Letting go, Yoga | 3 Comments »

Fear and getting in over my head

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

Today I'm a guest over at Cheerio Road, one of the blogs I read most regularly. Karen Maezen Miller is a mother, a writer and a Buddhist and she had spoken words of simple truth to me in many moments of confusion. It is an honour to be invited to be her guest. Enjoy!

Posted in Buddhism | 4 Comments »

Living the questions

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point [...]

Posted in Buddhism, Letting go, Sitting still, Yoga | 9 Comments »

The Peacemakers Art: An Unbiased Heart

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Image of Ishmael Beah by John Madere from Ishmael's website If you've been reading here for a while then you'll know that I believe in the world-changing power of a story. I believe that listening, with an unbiased heart, to someone's story may be the most important thing we ever do for them. This [...]

Posted in Being the change, Buddhism, Good things, Story-telling | 1 Comment »

Why being sad is okay with me

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Antonio*: good friend, loving husband and father, great listener, straight talker and UN Peacekeeper. May he rest in peace. I'm sad today. Yesterday suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a UN guesthouse in Kabul and killed nine people. On the same day a car bomb in Pakistan killed many more. I went to bed last [...]

Tags: compassion, love, sadness
Posted in Afghanistan, Buddhism, Yoga | 9 Comments »

Change the World: Make friends with your Heart

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. — Rumi Last week I wrote a list of 10 things you probably shouldn't say to a friend who doesn't have children. It was quite an experience. People responded, to [...]

Posted in Being the change, Buddhism, Sitting still, Spring Cleanse, Yoga | 14 Comments »

Cliches

Monday, August 31st, 2009

There are a few phrases that have become so well-used that their meaning seems some days to have been worn thin. But some of them are used so much because they touch on simple yet powerful truths and it is worth pulling them up into the light and really thinking about what they have to [...]

Posted in Being the change, Buddhism, Sitting still, Yoga | 7 Comments »

Conscious activism

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Twee Merrigan (yoga teacher) watches Edo Kahn and Jo Mall (musicians, devotees and music therapists) play and sing with children living in an orphanage in Bali Conscious activism is an idea that I've been playing with for a couple of years now, and here in Wellington I've had the joy of finding some friends and [...]

Posted in Being the change, Buddhism, Sitting still | 2 Comments »