Off the mat

There is an amazing story related the statue of Lord Buddha, pictured above! He sits in Bangkok’s Wat Traimit temple. This is a large and amazing statue. At almost 13 feet (3.9 meters) tall and 10 feet (3 meters) wide, this statue is made from 11,000 pounds of solid gold. It is the world’s largest solid gold object. The current value of the statue’s raw materials alone is about $250 million. The story is priceless!

The Golden Buddha’s story is an amazing, almost unbelievable one. It was created s…

Google defines a “hairy situation” as one that is “stressful or unnerving.” A hairy thought is a similar kind of thing. It is a thought, or sequence of thoughts, that puts your mind in a stressful or unnerving state.

What’s an example of a hairy thought? Prime examples are thoughts that involve or presage what Buddhists call afflictions: jealousy, anger, lust, greed, pride, or confusion. These primary afflictions are often accompanied by related mind-states, such as distrust, doubt, suspicion, en…

I’ve been gifted with three mothers: my birth mother, my mother-in-law, and my adoptive Indian mother, Sarla Sharma. How Sarla and I met is a long story, but she is a precious gift in my and Eileen’s lives, and she embodies devotion to the divine, to the divinity. We learn so much from her - mantras, prayers, stories about the gods. One of her stories is about Krishna. Sarla always tells us ancient stories, but gives them a modern spin.

At the time when Krishna had taken a body and walked on Eart…

Life is like a river. Sometimes the river carries us smoothly and uneventfully along. Sometimes we experience the rapids. Sometimes we find ourselves getting slammed against rocks or drawn under by the current.

What runs through the river of life? Spiritual practice runs through it. We commit to practice whatever is happening in our lives: The practice runs through the good, the bad, and the ugly. We practice through the good times and through the challenging times. The practice runs through the …

Okay! Today is, more or less (mostly less since we are launching ahead of schedule!) June 04, 2022. The target date of launch for this website. Eileen and I have been talking about going out on our own to teach yoga and mediation since the beginning of covid, and honestly, even before that. In the fall of 2021, we decided we really wanted to do it. It took us until January to commit, and honestly, we had no idea what we had signed up for!

Covid made online yoga and meditation a reality, and we pe…