True confessions: I actually don’t have rows in my classroom. We sit in an old-fashioned circle, and I don’t let the students put the chairs back after class. ‘Everyone,’ I tell them, ‘should sit in circles. You can see each other.’ (They think I’m just being nice to them, not realising I mean it :))…

In my next life, should I have one, I’m willing to come back as tea. A nice, comforting China black, preferably. Keemuns — Hao Ya — Panyangs — even a Muscatel-fragranced Darjeeling, although I like milk and raw sugar in my tea, usually. Tea is the perfect metaphor for beginner’s heart. It doesn’t ask anything…

…One hates the sanctimonious Buddha-goo But loves to meditate. To think one word And the breath balanced on its floor of muscle … Falling and rising like years. The brain-roof chatter Settling among the eaves. …  ~ Robert Pinsky Sometimes, poetry works so well it’s hard to catch my breath. I have to stop, look…

There’s an article on the Tricycle website about ‘original nature,’ and the Buddhist saying ‘return to your original state.’ I like to think the admonition is more like ‘Go home!’ Because that’s what it is, our original nature — whatever that means. It’s where it all began, where it all ends. It’s the home stretch,…

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