by Anam Cara Callahan
This piece is an essay on my practice of mindfulness in choosing heart-filled work and the awakening of my inner artist and spiritual master.
by Caitlin Bargenquast
The lyric essay of a meditating artist musing on hustle, synchronization, practice, abundance, and working for tips.
by Scott Coulter
Navigating an ocean of attachment and aversion in the music business.
by Rik Polfliet
It’s a personal aspiration prayer that I wrote in a flash of devout inspiration. I thought I’d share it here and I hope it can be of benefit.
”Just as on a dark night black with clouds,
The sudden lightning glares and all is clearly shown,
Likewise rarely, through the Buddhas’ power,
Virtuous thoughts rise, brief and transient, in the world.”
Shantideva -Bodhicharyavatara (Padmakara translation)
by Jogen Salzberg
A prose piece about practice on a Pacific Coast road trip.
by Rik Polfliet
It is a short contemplation about the fact that I sometimes chase some exotic looking butterfly and stop practicing Dharma for a while. I hope it can be of some benefit.
by Phoebe Tsang
A creative non-fiction meditation on vegetarianism, the nature of dharma, and dating. It is an account of the everyday conflicts I encounter, trying to live and practice the Buddhadharma within the context of my everyday, urban, layperson’s lifestyle.
by Tanmaya Martin
Falling into an Indian medical sewer.
Satori or trauma?
by Caitlin Strom
Why I love meditation and art in equal measures. Discussed: Rothko, shutter speeds, the speed of mind, splashing, smiling, the ocean in winter, brushstrokes, freezing time, egolessness, impermanence, and awakened heart.
by Lisa Wilson
Profound loss can create a sudden, uninvited wake-up call. When I received mine, I was gifted with new perspectives on life and on death. Art was a critical tool in helping maintain an awareness through the fire of pain, an awareness that has led to a much deeper peace on and off the meditation cushion.
And because of all of that, this is.
by Emeric Thuret
Using the technic of first thought-best thought introduced by Thrungpa Rinpoche, received by Yumma Mudra, and applied in every day dance of life, I share reflection of present moment experience and space around that experience.
First, there is a white page…
by Dakota Sexton
”Buddhism B-Sides” is a coming-of-age essay about music and family. It begins with the ill-fated piano lessons I was first given by my mother during childhood, and continues as an investigation of my sometimes mindful and mindless relationship to music for years afterwards, spanning over a decade and a half. Yet the ”coming-of-age” heart of the story isn’t limited to any of these things. It instead becomes my spiritual awakening to how Buddhist understanding and compassion can be discovered by practicing or experiencing any art, any tune–whether that tune is played with poor execution or with grace.
by Max Greiner
Dakini Radio is a sci-fi take on tantra in the form (so far) of an ongoing online graphic novel. The novel explores the life and impact of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s life and teachings on young Western practitioners and the modern (and future) world, and explores the Dakini principle in a range of manifestations –from the experiential to the literal. My goal with it is to visually, textually, and symbolically explore the depth and breadth of my connection to Trungpa’s Dharma, as well as share my experience as a young Dharma practitioner with the world.
by Erik Blagsvedt
This type of writing is about not-knowing, staying near the cosmic hole where everything comes out of. It is the most terrifying and exhilarating way to write. It feels like failing and being an idiot most of the time but brilliance is always there. When I have brief realizations about the fundamental nature of things I want to go and write like this. Sometimes writing like this leads to those kinds of realizations. They are not separate and they both help the playful or artfulness of life come through. ”One rung ladder.”
by Erik Blagsvedt
Another piece of fiction loosely held together by playfulness and an odd storyline.
by Brian Hendrickson
This is a poem influenced by my practice of Zen Buddhism. ”Lately I Begin with Birds” describes a quiet moment at daybreak and the speaker’s attempts to focus the energy of that moment through a meditation on language as colored by his surroundings, away from the obvious cynicism and negativity of the everyday, toward compassion and an earnest commitment to others, and ultimately toward a kind of collective spiritual liberation through the emancipating and communal power of artistic discovery and expression. This poem has previously appeared in North Carolina Literary Review, no. 20 (2011).
