One of the hardest things for people who grew up feeling unheard or silenced to learn is that speaking a lot of words now won’t make them...

The Iroquois have a beautiful story about how peace came to their confederacy. Once, their land was full of war because of an evil leader...

I used to be the habit of buying myself flowers. One afternoon, I was walking home with some pretty white roses, when a gaggle of...

People say, “Live each day as though it were your last,” but people do horrible, senseless things with their last days. I prefer what...

Wherever I go, people seem to think Buddhism is about “inner peace.” But the Buddha didn’t teach inner peace. He taught skillful action,...

There’s a story of a soldier who says to the Buddha, “I was taught that if I die in battle, I’ll go to heaven.” The Buddha says: You’ve...

One of the bombs fell right by my father-in-law’s old house in north Tehran, killing several people in a residential building. Meanwhile,...

A friend of mine says that when she wakes up anxious or depressed, she takes a walk and says “good morning” to everyone she meets along...

I recently read a story about a woman who used to bully her Alexa device. It started with the woman teasing Alexa when it made a mistake;...

One commonly-used phrase in healing circles is “holding space for pain.” On the one hand, it’s pretty literal: we all need safe people to...

The other day I posted a video of my song, “If You’re Lucky Your Heart Will Break.” It’s about the way that pain can be an important...

In the early 2010s, a series of scientific studies proved that people would rather feel pain than be bored. In one experiment,...

I recently saw a documentary about a beach in Ghana where a huge percentage of the world’s clothing washes up each year. In the film, a...

I recently saw a video of ICE agents throwing a woman against a wall, zip-tying her, and then releasing her when they realized they had...

One of my insecurities is feeling sometimes like I don’t have enough style. As a musician, for example, I can be confident in the content...

Ajaan Chah’s student once got into a fight with another monk. Walking away, he came upon Ajaan Chah, who gave him a big smile. Right...

In Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, a young man murders an old lady. He initially feels justified in his action. She’s going to...

The biggest party I ever threw was twenty years ago in Cairo. It wasn’t supposed to be big: I only invited about six people, some of whom...

Chögyam Trungpa used to warn about waiting for “the dream come true.” All of us, in our own ways, are waiting for life to conform to some...

The Buddha said that every evening, when you see the sun set, you should remind yourself that this might be the last sunset you ever see....