Decades ago in the 70’s, before the Dalai Lama became famous, his smiling face was on the cover of a newspaper called The Snow Lion. The quote under his photo struck me so powerfully that I cut out the cover page and stuck it on a kitchen cupboard w... Read more

Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. ​ The Five Invitations: What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully Life and death are a packag... Read more

We left Kyotos budding plum blossoms and camellias opening under grey skies, a smattering of tears falling as I looked out the rain-streaked window of the train to Osaka airport. Although we were here for less than a week of rare, liberated wanderin... Read more

The Buddha’s original instructions for meditation, or dhyana, ask us to go into a secluded forest and sit under a tree, a quiet place to allow deep concentration. If you’ve ever meditated outside in nature, you can feel the support of plants, landsc... Read more

Im in San Francisco at the Wisdom 2.0 conference asking how to bring wisdom and compassion to our use of technology. There are many competing views on this. It is like the ancient story about six people who are blind touching different parts of an e... Read more

Retreats are powerful. They give you a chance to reset, refresh, and de-clutter your mind. They offer time to resolve unfinished things in your heart, to learn to see yourself and the world with eyes of compassion and forgiveness. Retreats help t... Read more

Spring birds and flowers have arrived. Time to sign up for our InsightLAs Spring Insight Meditation retreat. If youve never sat a retreat before, this is the one for you. We have a smaller group with more teacher support and presence, in a luxuriou... Read more

Even after decades of teaching about the dead-end of hatred, I confess: I hate moving. Even when Im moving to a more spacious and suitable situation, there is a hazy aura of loss, a premature nostalgia for the place Im choosing to leave. Our Los ... Read more

AN EXCERPT FROM SPRING WASHAMS NEW BOOK, A FIERCE HEART: In Buddhist tradition, humanity is sometimes described as being lost in a vast ocean. I always imagine all seven billion of us, dog paddling and flailing around desperately, looking for sec... Read more

A conversation with bell hooks & Thich Nhat Hanh: bell hooks: I began writing a book on love because I felt that the United States is moving away from love. The civil rights movement was such a wonderful movement for social justice because th... Read more