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Dear Common Ground Friends, Today we pause to remember our dear friend, Steve Armstrong who passed away on December 23rd. Steve passed away peacefully in his home on Maui with Kamala Masters, his wife and teaching partner, by his side chanting the refuges ...

Dear Common Ground Friends, I am finishing up my month of teaching at the Forest Refuge in Massachusetts and had the good fortune to facilitate a Question & Answer session with Joseph Goldstein this afternoon. The last question from one of the retreatants...

Dear Common Ground Friends, Wishing everyone tender ease at this time of year. For those celebrating the holidays may your time with family and friends be wholesome and joyful. It seems an appropriate time to reflect on how our hearts relate to both the...

Dear Common Ground Friends, Contemplation has long had an important role in spiritual practice. We’re encouraged to bring a wise and loving attention to our experience, gently investigating the nature of what's happening in each moment with a sense of ca...

Dear Common Ground Friends, In our world animated by so much greed and hate, history teaches us that power often does what power can get away with doing, regardless of the harm caused. Now we see the tremendous suffering that follows from those with power...

Dear Common Ground Friends, As we complete another circle around the sun, let’s acknowledge together with tenderness the many storms in our personal and collective lives, and all the unnecessary suffering that keeps us spinning round and round. Fortunat...

Dear Common Ground Friends, When I was practicing at Insight Meditation Society earlier this fall, this verse from the Dhammapada was written on the meal board one morning: "Ah, so happily we live, without hate among those who hate. Among people who hate,...

Dear Common Ground Friends, Thanksgiving arrives each year as a complicated invitation to grow our capacity to be right in the middle of life on life's terms. We may gather with our friends and family to express gratitude, to share meals and to rest and ...

Dear Common Ground Friends, For many of us these are disturbing times. I have experienced real fear and heartbreak due to the violence and mistreatment being acted out in our community and our wider world. I feel at times, both the impulse to hide and the...

Dear Common Ground Friends, I imagine the Buddha had a nuanced understanding of power and likely recognized power as neither inherently good nor bad. Power is something we are all familiar with. In fact, we use power every day in small and big ways… power...