Given our current issue’s emphasis on caring for sick and dying loved ones, we’ve asked the pioneeringFrank Ostaseski of the Metta Institute and the Zen Hospice Project to share some of his wisdom about the topic with us all. Read More »
If you love Shambhala Sun too, why not express it with one little click? Interns Claire Heisler, Mai Nguyen, and Jesse P. Hiltz have created a Facebook group just for you to declare your connection with the magazine and its online content. It’s a space for you to share your comments on recent issues of Shambhala Sun and make known your own experiences with Buddhism, culture, meditation, and life. You can also Read More »
In November 2007 I arrived back from a short holiday in the United States to my work as a UN human rights officer in Afghanistan. Days later, the deadliest suicide attack to take place in Afghanistan happened in Baghlan, killing at least 40 adults and three children and maiming more than 60 adults and 60 children. For two days after the bombing I sunk into a despairing sadness for Afghanistan.
But I also managed to listen to teachings Pema Chodron gave during her Practicing Peace in Times of War retreat—and learned a great deal. Read More »
Just a few hours ago on SunSpace, Zen teacher Karen Maezen Miller told us we can “change the course of our own catastrophe” by following the Eightfold Path as taught by the Buddha.
Just now I see that blogger Andrew C. White is ringing a similar chime, noting how the Eightfold Path “might clear some of the muddle going on in Washington” and in the media around US health care reform. Read More »
The momentary fascination with the reality TV train wreck “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ has me wondering if the sad saga of family striving and dissolution is beneficial as a morality tale. Does the failed couple’s melodrama teach a real-life lesson about balancing careers, money, self-image, household responsibilities, individuality and passion post-parenthood?
Yes, there’s a lesson, in the same sense that wildfires teach us not to throw matches and car accidents teach us not to text behind the wheel. The damage, however, is so dear that it’s hardly redemptive unless we can change the course of our own catastrophe. Read More »
Yogabody: Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Asana does not delve into the spiritual or philosophical side of yoga—that is, unless you are able to make deep awareness of your bones and muscles a mindfulness exercise. Yet spiritual or not, both students and teachers of yoga will find this book useful in helping them to understand the body and, thereby, avoid injury while doing asana. Read More »
Photos and text by Claire Heisler(photos taken in Bhutan)
In the West, we constantly want to replace old things. Shirt has a hole? In the bag for the Salvation Army. Microwave making that funny noise again? In the garbage it goes.
Well, prayer flags don’t work that way. Read More »
Daniel Chan, secretary of the Australian Chinese Buddhist Society, thinks so, and he’s planning to do just that, for this week’s record $90 million Oz Lotto draw.
“Well, why not?” he’s told Australia’s The Age. “It’s a truckload of cash.”
He’s got a point, but then, so does the thorn of a rose. Read More »
What has as much sublime magnitude and timeless reverence as the mountain? Mountains stand and witness the centuries as minutes, where we humans come into being and pass away, as if only in seconds. Generations upon generations of individuals look back over their shoulders and consider their accomplishments in its shadow. Yet, for the mountain, one’s heritage seems like a mere breath. Read More »
Most of us gurls, ladies, sisters of the Buddhist world are always hungry for more material about Buddhist women and, here at the Shambhala Sun, we love to highlight such work. Right now, we’re pleased to take note of “Blessings,” a new documentary by Victress Hitchcock, Jampa Kalden, and Cynthia Kneen, which is about the Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns—3,000 remarkable women who practice an ancient yogic tradition in remote Tibetan nunneries and hermitages. Here is the trailer…
People stumble upon escape arts in the course of life. An escape art frees you to be in greater harmony with what passes for reality. One of the simplest of escape arts is to notice that every thought you have could benefit from a question mark. The upsidedownness or reversibility of everything the mind is doing is a crucial discovery. Read More »
This week in India, Buddhists celebrated the birthday of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.
The head of the Kagyu lineage in Tibet—and the man who some say is likely to play an important, if not the top, role in Tibetan governmental affairs once the Dalai Lama steps down—turned 24. Read More »
This is an anecdote I’ve carried in my mind for years:
I have a Buddhist friend who was visiting monasteries in Nepal a few years ago. One day, he got a rare invitation to witness a “sky burial” — the funeral of a monk, held on a mountaintop, culminating in the dismemberment of his body and scattering of his flesh and bones to feed birds of prey and other animals. Read More »
Given our current issue’s emphasis on caring for sick and dying loved ones, we’ve asked the pioneering Frank Ostaseski of the Metta Institute and the Zen Hospice Project to share some of his wisdom about the topic with us all. Read More 
If you love Shambhala Sun too, why not express it with one little click? Interns Claire Heisler, Mai Nguyen, and Jesse P. Hiltz have created a Facebook group just for you to declare your connection with the magazine and its online content. It’s a space for you to share your comments on recent issues of Shambhala Sun and make known your own experiences with Buddhism, culture, meditation, and life. You can also 
By Mai Nguyen
Just a few hours ago on SunSpace, Zen teacher 
The momentary fascination with the reality TV train wreck 
Yogabody: Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Asana
Photos and text by Claire Heisler (photos taken in Bhutan)
Daniel Chan, secretary of the Australian Chinese Buddhist Society, thinks so, and he’s planning to do just that, for this week’s record $90 million Oz Lotto draw.
The teaching is upside down. – Zen koan
By Steve Silberman