Through mindfulness based interventions, the author, a psychologist with humanitarian experience, aims to foster a culture of ‘learning and care’ among aid workers and their agencies.

That tree doesn’t need to be more than the tree. A tree just needs to be a tree. But our society always asks us to be more, right? Can’t we just be a human? Can we just be who we are?

There is no way to healing. Healing is the way.

If we have learned one thing from the #MeToo campaign, apart from just how pervasive sexual violence is, it is that we as a society do not have a clear, uncontested idea of what sexual consent looks like, and that we do not all universally and equally value it.

A lucid treatment of an important and difficult subject, this book should be considered required reading for anyone who wishes to navigate their sexual relations more skillfully or who wishes to understand the contemporary discourse about sex.

… the most truthful way of regarding illness — and the healthiest way of being ill — is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking

A classic and much-cited essay on the (mis)use of metaphors to describe disease.

Available online from the original publisher: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Years later, Sontag also wrote in the NYRB, this time on the metaphors of AIDS in a compelling post-script later published alongside the original essay.

After reading, consider these discussion questions about the essay.

… how a wise lay follower should advise another wise lay follower who is sick

Ending with a rather unusual description of the path as turning the mind progressively higher.

We manifest our humanity, we are most fully human, in learning.

On how Thai Buddhists respond to death, and how we can use the Buddha’s education system to live the good life.

‘I smiled at the guards standing at my cell,’ he writes. ‘Being thrown in the Hole was worth the pleasure of seeing them still alive.’

A review of Jarvis Masters’ spiritual memoir Finding Freedom analyzing the work as a critque of toxicity in an American prison and the presentation of an alternate “Bodhisattva” masculinity possible even among killers.

Even as I work on eliminating the amplification of suffering, I can also turn to looking to ways I might start to amplify more life-serving experiences. Do I sense, anywhere in my body, a bit of well-being? Or even a bit of pleasure, or joy, appreciation, or love? Am I willing to let my attention rest there?

A short introduction to mindfulness as cognitive therapy.

When I first heard her story, I found myself wondering how on earth I could help a mother to overcome the grief of the loss of a son. Nothing gave Laila hope

A therapist successfully uses secularized Buddhist meditation techniques to help Palestinians living with severe trauma.

I did not delight in the contemplative Gotama’s speech; I condemned it, rose from my seat, and left!

A grieving father is having none of the Buddha’s nonsense, and King Pasenadi gets a damma talk from his wife, Queen Mallikā, on the dangers of affection in this entertaining sutta.

Now suppose that in the autumn—when it’s raining in fat, heavy drops—a water bubble were to appear & disappear on the water, and a man with sight were to see it. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a bubble? In the same way, a man with wisdom sees a feeling. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a feeling?

The Buddha gives a series of similes for the aggregates: physical form is like foam, feeling is like a bubble, perception is like a mirage, choices are like a coreless tree, and consciousness is like an illusion.

“What meditation does Venerable Anuruddha practice so that physical pain doesn’t occupy his mind?”

…when these people meditate they’re awfully grim.

Ajahn Geoff reminds Westerners to ground their meditation practice in generosity.