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Dear Common Ground Friends, Dharma teacher Shinzen Young teaches, “Subtle is significant.” I find it clarifying to sincerely ask, “What problem am I attempting to resolve in this moment?” It can be heartbreaking and at times shocking to discover how mu...

Dear Common Ground Friends, Our days are made up of many ordinary moments taking care of ourselves and each other, cleaning up, waiting our turn, responding to emails, and so on. So many of these moments can seem small, easy to overlook as we move from...

Dear Common Ground Friends, You might have, at different times in your life, felt an urgency to deepen your spiritual practice. The Buddha taught in ways that stirred this kind of energy in the hearts of his students. This spiritual urgency isn't panic or...

Dear Common Ground Friends, Human beings have been turning to spiritual practice for peace and strength for ages. In Buddhism, this movement of the heart is expressed through the practice of taking refuge. Going for refuge is remembering what we deeply va...

Dear Common Ground Friends, The Buddha spoke often about patience as a steady strength of heart. Patience is what allows us to stay present with discomfort without immediately trying to resolve it, avoid it, or push through it. It allows wisdom the time i...

Dear Common Ground Friends, Many of us come to meditation carrying a great deal of tension in our bodies and minds, some of which we notice and much that we don't. It may be surprising to feel the degree of tension that is present, and we may even thin...

Dear Common Ground Friends, Whether we know it or not we are living in a relational world. We are always relating, always in relationship with each other, and we are always unavoidably in relationship with all the unresolved pain in us and around us, e...

Dear Common Ground Friends, What draws us to Buddhist practice at different times in our lives might be a healthy desire to want to feel better or do better with the people and circumstances of our lives, to live out our values in a deeper, more intent...

Dear Common Ground Friends, The Buddha’s path has a particular flavor to it, the flavor of inner relinquishment of attachment. The resulting freedom reflects the unbinding of one’s heart. The process of relinquishment goes against our conditioned habit...

Dear Common Ground Friends, I have appreciated over the years the value of dropping in simple questions from time to time. What is it like to be aware right now? What is this felt experience like? What is awareness revealing right now? Can it be ok just...