by Britton Estep
Vulture Biology is an excerpt from my dharma nature poetry memoir, Signals. Signals is the writing that happened after my father suddenly died in 2010. It is a collection of contemplative stories which detail the nature of impermanence both personally and planetary. When my eyes were opened by the deep sadness I was experiencing, I could not stop looking at just my pain. My previous pronoun boundaries of me, you, and them- all became a blurry mess as the world I had known was wiped clean away.
Grief handed me Buddhism as a way to continue to open my heart.
by Alex Tzelnic
My piece is about the many manifestations of the self, and how practice sheds light on what it means to be me; a young practitioner in the 21st century.
by Don Dianda
Using Zen to blow down inner walls and deal with the passing of those we love.
by Anthuan Vuong
A story of my life’s journey with my father that spanned three years, crossing five borders, across two continents, by land, sea, and air. It is also a journey of my personal growth with across a quarter of a century. My father’s unexpected death allows me to look inside myself to see that I’m his continuation. As his continuation, my father in me has died and reborn each brand new day.
by Sarah Lipton
They tell me that this is a story of courage. For me, it is a story that has been waiting to be shared for seven years.
by Colleen Clemens
This work explores the connection between my yoga practice and my journey to become pregnant through fertility treatments. I come to realize that yoga and baby loss taught me to practice compassion for myself and to surrender to my breath and the present moment.
by Rachael Durham
A poem about the broken relationship between a mother and daughter, that is not yet resolved but the daughter finds peace in the relationship through the practice of meditation.
by Liza Smith
I’m not a good Buddhist by any serious standards. I have no guru. I hardly meditate. I’ve only done a handful of dharma programs and my spiritual practice always falls to the end of my list of priorities. But my Buddhist roots run deep, and their story goes back to before I was born.
by Nyaniko Anagarika
This is an autobiographical essay of how I came to the Dharma, and how the path has been one of continually finding balance through the ups and downs of striving, ill health, love, and work in the world.
by Alina Sansevich
My work is a story about my mindfulness practice during a very stressful moment in my life, and how mindful breathing helped me ”survive” it.
by Angie Viets
A tale of one woman’s journey into motherhood, and the teachers that are teaching her life’s greatest truths along the way.
by Samantha Claire Updegrave
In Falling is an exploration of finding flight, mid-air.
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 Kiri Westby
My experience waking up to the slime and the muck of life through the regular practice of cleaning public restrooms.
by Larissa Ziesmann
An honest account of how following Tibetan Buddhist principles has helped me stay grounded,present and aware at the most crucial time in my life…trying to recover from a 15 year spread of heroin use…and all the experiences that were a result of that life. An account of awakening to my purpose and being honest, for the first time ever, with who i really am, where I really want to go, and what I can give in this lifetime.
by Jonathan Perlow
An exploration into how the way of the individual finds symmetry and reflection in the way that is the Buddhist tradition.
by Carol 'Lorton' Shilor
Sweet Child is a story of clarity and awakening; in the strangest of places. This is one woman’s story of coming to grips with infertility.
by Anna Guest-Jelley
“The Official Buddhist Club” describes how I got my invitation to accept the Buddhist path I’ve been on for the past twelve years – at my dad’s deathbed.
by Meghan Mahoney
I wrote this piece five years at the conclusion of my year traveling internationally as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. My research was ostensibly on the experience of female ice hockey players around the world. What my journey became was an immensely profound personal and spiritual transformation. This particular essay, once titled ”Met My Guru’s and S*&t Like That,” details the amazing women who influenced my thinking and living that year. I was forever changed by their personal narratives and their living examples of transforming injustice and inequity into compassion and right living.
by Sanaz Demehry
Meditation has helped me since the birth of my first child. Through the continuation of learning and developing of my techniques and expanding of knowledge of dharma philosophy, it has opened my heart, mind and soul in becoming more mindful and aware of my surroundings and the individuals and things that occupy that space. My essay describes how this has changed for the better my interaction with my husband, children, family, friends, and strangers.
