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Attitude is More Important than Action. ~ Lama Thubten Yeshe

by on May 18, 2013

These days, even though many people realize the limitations of material comfort and are interested in following a spiritual path, few really appreciate the true value of practicing Dharma. For most, the practice of Dharma, religion, meditation, yoga, or whatever they call it, is still superficial: they simply change what they wear, what they eat, [...]

2,090 views
Comments 19

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that…” ~ Louise Erdrich

by on May 15, 2013

Whether physically or emotionally, or both, no one gets out of life alive. Life is rough stuff. Recently I’ve been wondering if I’m tough enough. And, luckily, service pulls me forward. Otherwise, I’d drown in hurt, in disappointment, in self-pity. Perhaps you’ve hurt, too.  Life is full of love—heartbreak. Of laughter—and loneliness. Of casual, under-appreciated [...]

3,479 views
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The Quote that helped me Recover from Growing Up Buddhist.

by on Mar 27, 2013

I’m in Halifax, presently, visiting my mom. Halifax is a center for Buddhism in the West, and I’ve been running into all kinds of folks I’ve known all my life. I ran into one gentleman at the Shambhala Meditation Center, today, where we were practicing the beautiful Sadhana of Mahamudra. And this gentleman asked me [...]

577 views
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How Do We Hit Those Curve Balls? ~ Edith Lazenby

by on Mar 21, 2013

Swinging the Bat When We Cannot Hit I know many people who are facing curve balls that I would not begin to know how to hit—or, if I could hit them, make my way around the bases, much less back home. I spent a good week crying a lot. It’s hard to run around the [...]

182 views
Comments (1)

My favorite song via Joe Strummer, 10 years gone.

by on Dec 22, 2012

“I’d like to say that people can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. Show me any country and there’ll be people in it. And it’s the people that make the country. People have got to stop pretending they’re not on the world. People are running about following their little [...]

214 views
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What’s elephant’s story?

by on Dec 7, 2012

Q: “How did Waylon get started with elephant journal?” The speedy nutshell version. The below question was asked in a recent apprentice meeting. As I don’t like to “lose” words that don’t serve to connect us with our readers, I thought to share it with you. Below is the (mercifully) short version of the genesis [...]

1,316 views
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Shambhala in Crisis: my interview with Executive Director Carolyn Mandelker.

by on Dec 5, 2012

Note: For those who may not understand: we offer three free articles a day including searches and home page. To get 10 free links a week, just our best, subscribe to our free newsletter. Paid subscriptions are $1/month, and keep indie media alive. Unrelated update: We’re currently donating an ad to Walter Fordham’s Iliana. Click [...]

1,776 views
Comments 28

21st Century Yoga: Questioning the “Body Beautiful”: Yoga, Commercialism & Discernment. ~ Frank Jude Boccio

by on Dec 3, 2012

The following post is part of the 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics and Practice book club exclusive to elephant journal. It’s based on Frank Jude Boccio’s essay, where he uses the buddhist practice of satipatthana to deconstruct the very notions of “the body” and “beauty.” This post looks to explain the notion of “transparency” and [...]

1,088 views
Comments 34

I Have No Friends.

by on Oct 23, 2012

The below poem is offered in honor of this poem by an Anonymous Samurai: …I have no friends: I make my mind my friend. I have no enemy: I make carelessness my enemy. I have no armour: I make benevolence and righteousness my armour. I have no castle: I make immovable mind my castle. I [...]

1,673 views
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Health & Wellness is Bad for You. Just ask Charles Bukowski.

by on Jul 27, 2012

“Live your life so well that death will tremble to take you.” ~ Charles Bukowski We blog a lot about Health & Wellness. Well Fear of Death is the worst thing for us. So here’s Bukowski. Health & Wellness. Sure, taking care of ourself is good for us. Naturally. Health & Wellness: it’s one of [...]

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Waylon gets LA’d.

by on Apr 22, 2012

In which Redneck Huck Finn gets f*****d by LA, and escapes the City with fellow outcasts. ~ ed. ~ My afternoon/eve away from Tadasana with photographer/artist Robert Sturman, elephant Lindsey Block & yogini/model Liz Arch. I had a rough, sad, long, but sane day yesterday here in LA. It’s a city that takes your good faith and [...]

871 views
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Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis: Upcoming Shows.

by on Apr 9, 2012

We’ll give you an update shortly on our guests on the upcoming shows. We’re taking a summer recess from our bi-monthly shows at Shine in Boulder because we’ll be taking the Walk the Talk Show On the Road. Keep an eye out for us as we travel to conferences, yoga and music festivals across the [...]

308 views
Comments (0)

Meditation: The Pearl in the Oyster.

by on Mar 19, 2012

Meditation enables us to transform difficulties into solutions, release the boundaries and limitations of separation and merge into oneness. It is an experience of profound joy and intimate familiarity, a feeling of coming home that reminds us so completely of who we really are that we forget we had ever forgotten. There is just this.

502 views
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Livestream or Attend: Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis: Thursday, March 22.

by on Mar 15, 2012

Featuring: Chef Ann Cooper on the importance of healthy and nutritious food for kids & Jim Adams and Judy Jasek on pet health and diet. Boulder tickets: no need to register online, though if your name is RVSP’d on Facebook you’re guaranteed entry. Just come. $3 at door (though if you can’t pay, $1 is [...]

403 views
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elephant’s Best of the Week.

by on Mar 8, 2012

Subscribe to elephant’s free Top 10 Blogs of the Week newsletter. Yoga Girl Tricks Eco Boy into Asking Her Out (on Facebook). The Continuing Adventures of Eco Boy vs. Yoga Girl, a serialized novel (fiction). “Dating in the 21st Century is becoming virtual. Love and life itself are becoming virtual. In the internet, there are no [...]

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Watch Live: Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis: March 8th.

by on Mar 4, 2012

Live Taping: Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis:
Frank Berliner on Buddhist meditation to help improve your business and relationships, Laura Ruby with 10 ways to green up your backyard, Music: Fiddle with Adam Agee.
with
Special Musical Guest: Na’an Stop!
&
Fashion show segment featuring: YAW

March 8th, 2012.

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elephant’s Best of the Week.

by on Feb 29, 2012

Subscribe to elephant’s free Top 10 Blogs of the Week newsletter. Yoga Girl Looks at Herself. Back in Boulton, Colorada. “True love doesn’t exist, friends. Everyone’s playing a game. So lose as quick as you can—lay down your king—give up. For it’s only on the other side of defeat that the mysterious heart, cracked, can let [...]

162 views
Comments (1)

{New Updates} Michal the Girl: how to help.

by on Nov 26, 2011

Update: Request for photos of Michal. Please email your photos of Michal to mtg@animusrex.com for inclusion in the slideshow that will be projected during the celebration of Michal’s life and music on 12/19 at the Canal Room [NYC]. Two megapixels or better (1600 pixels wide or greater) would be helpful. We’re looking for photos from [...]

18,817 views
Comments 73

Buddhism: what to do when your child sees roadkill.

by on Aug 13, 2011

Moments of Sadness inspire Life & the Buddhist mantra Om Vajrasattva Hum. Buddhism: How to use Negative Circumstances to Wake up. Buddhist Mindfulness Habit: Roadkill. Death Comes without Warning. The Vajrasattva Mantra: “mind protection.” Momentary sadness reminds us that life is fragile, precious, worth living fully and properly. By dimitridf When I was a child, [...]

1,002 views
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Raw transcript: my interview re Buddhism in America, New Media, elephant…on Tricycle Magazine.

by on Jul 18, 2011

Waylon Lewis 10:08 AM Emma! Sorry I’m a bit late. Emma Varvaloucas 10:09 AM No problem! Waylon Lewis 10:09 AM I’m at the Buddhist-owned Trident Cafe & Booksellers in downtown Boulder…where Buddhists have been congregating for decades. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche planted a juniper tree out front back in the day. 10:09 AM So you want [...]

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My analyst warned me, but you were so beautiful I got another analyst.

by on Apr 12, 2011

Questions regarding Therapy. What good is your therapist if they only know what you tell them? How genuine is a “retail” relationship between a customer (is always right) and a “doctor” (really, a vendor dispensing selective, subjective wisdom inherently limited by the information and honesty of the client, in 30 or 50 or 2 hour [...]

1,686 views
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Romantic Confessions of the Hottest Male Buddhist Blogger 2009

by on Jul 31, 2010

[NOTE ABOUT THE TITLE: The author of this piece was named "Hottest Male Buddhist Blogger 2009" some months back by this publication, though he has repeatedly tried to concede the honor to its editor-in-chief.] The last time I saw her I was not kind. I was all glower and silence—an ugly, effective combination I learned [...]

1,484 views
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Spiritwell Gets It.

by on Jul 9, 2010

Upscale Meditation Teachings without the Pretense. via twitter.com/elephantjournal: Finally, meditation for rich people! http://bit.ly/98DqQ3 Years in the wellness industry (and it is an industry indeed) have numbed me to the impact of many an aspiring self-help program. You really can’t throw a stick in the Bay Area without hitting the latest spiritual fad. So it [...]

584 views
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11 years of Naropa University Commencement Ceremonies.

by on May 13, 2010

Ancient History I was born in Boulder, Colorado, during the first summer of Naropa. I was a thoughtful newborn—my parents were both students of that first wild enthusiastic serious summer of Naropa University, in 1974—conveniently, I chose to enter this planetary orb on July 16—the day between summer sessions. My mom named me after Philip [...]

1,130 views
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A Classic Commencement Speech: Steve Jobs (Plus, the Buddhist 4 Reminders).

by on Feb 28, 2010

The Four Reminders are something we Buddhists repeat, and remind ourselves of, every day. But there’s nothing patently “Buddhist” about them—we’re basically just remembering that life is vulnerable, fragile, precious, and shouldn’t be wasted doing stupid, selfish, insincere stuff. Four Reminders Joyful to have Such a human birth, Difficult to find, Free and well-favored. But [...]

2,354 views
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Tiger Woods’s Big Speech: I’m recommitting to Buddhism. Complete video.

by on Feb 19, 2010

Tiger Woods: Mea Culpa, Buddha. Emphasizing a return to his Buddhist tradition, Tiger vows to Bring Obstacles to the Path. Sorry, Brit Hume. Seems that forgiveness, humiliation, anger, adultery, raising a family, handling the adulation and now blame of millions…well seems Tiger figured Buddhism could handle whatever love-sex-suffering-adultery-confusion that life could throw at his klesha-killing, [...]

1,759 views
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Mindful Meat Eating. ~ Mike Mallory

by on Feb 13, 2010

With thanks to Mike Mallory, who challenged me not to be so extreme, and actually learn more about what I was talking about—like the vital differences between organic and biodynamic. ~ ed. Is there a middle ground between mindlessly eating Factory Farm Meat and Veganism? Well, let’s go ahead and lay the cards on the table.. [...]

2,294 views
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“What’s wrong with me?” Or, Three Seconds on Regret.

by on Dec 28, 2009

The scariest question of ‘em all. A friend of mine, lovely, stylish, smart, educated…hasn’t had a serious relationship since she was 20. She and I got to talking awhile back, at some dinner party or bar, and she talked about how it was nearly impossible for her to silence that insistent “What’s wrong with me?” [...]

1,180 views
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Why I say “Merry Christmas!” to all.

by on Dec 25, 2009

A lot of people, manyyy of my friends, hate Christmas. And for very good reasons. For anyone who likes green grass and blue skies and clean air and healthy children…well, the sheer volume of crap we give to one another is sickening. Like too much ice cream. Still, I love Christmas, always have. Even if [...]

2,959 views
Comments 22

Buddhadharma in Everyday Life: Lojong Slogan “Perform All Activities with One Intention,” via Linda Lewis

by on Dec 20, 2009

Buddhism: if your motivation is to be of benefit, then anything you do is meditation. Perform All Activities with One Intention Lojong XIV By Linda V. Lewis Atisha’s Lojong (“Mind-Training”) slogans are not rules or commandments to obey, but are helpful guidelines, suggesting how to proceed and be of benefit in everyday life. Any activity [...]

1,555 views
Comments 4

The Berlin Wall, In A Way You Have Not Seen.

by on Dec 9, 2009

If you were to walk up to remains of the Berlin Wall, face to face, this year, 20 years after it’s historic fall, you would see something like this. Gnarly cracks, peeling paint, and a remnant of famous and iconic murals that could not survive the flux of the German seasons and the hands of [...]

281 views
Comments 3

Naropa University’s Next President.

by on Mar 30, 2009

Naropa University, in green-minded, progressive, outdoorsy Boulder, Colorado, is an idyllic, alternative small school. Founded only 30 years ago, it’s still forming, still young—and yet its roots go back not only to the Beat poets that founded its excellent writing school, but all the way back to Nalanda University, the Harvard or Oxford of ancient [...]

1,416 views
Comments 8

Everyday Buddhadharma ~ Buddhist Lojong Slogan: “When the world is filled with evil, all mishaps should be transformed into the path of bodhi.” ~ Linda Lewis

by on Mar 17, 2009

Everyday Buddhadharma   Working with  Slogans. > By Linda V. Lewis Atisha, like Buddha, knew that patience is a powerful way to transform difficult circumstances into the path of Enlightenment. Ordinary patience implies the bearing of solid pains or problems by a solid self. But he was not referring to ordinary patience—rather, Atisha was referring to the paramita [...]

1,292 views
Comments 4

Root for the Other Team ~ via Marc Barasch [Patrul Rinpoche, Tibetan Meditation Master Wangchuk Dorje]

by on Feb 18, 2009

From elephant journal’s Autumn 2005 Issue The below is excerpted and adapted from our Summer book-review-of-the-issue, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life. For more: compassionatelife.com The 16th century Tibetan meditation master Wangchuk Dorje recommended a practice he called “the Activity of Being in Crowds.” Walking through a throng, he said, is a “good opportunity to examine [...]

532 views
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The Buddha Prince [a walking play about the childhood of the Dalai Lama; Markell Kiefer, Waylon Lewis, Tiger Lion]

by on Feb 18, 2009

From the Autumn 2005 Issue It’s no secret that, no matter where you look these days, there seems to be bad news. It’s become increasingly difficult to weed through the steady barrage of media and world-wide confusion for a clue as to how to carry hope as something more than a pretty idea on a [...]

441 views
Comments (0)

Waylon Lewis of elephantjournal.com; a conversation with Inge Sargent: The Last Mahadevi (Queen) re: Burma / Myanmar.

by on Feb 18, 2009

From elephantjournal.com’s Autumn 2005 Issue. Waylon H. Lewis, for elephant: You were formerly a princess, I understand..! Inge Sargent: I was the mahadevi of Hsipaw State. Nowadays, no crown or gown…nothing! But I’m still princess of the Shan state in Burma—about the size of Connecticut. My first husband’s family had ruled that state since 40 B.C. [...]

1,785 views
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WWII posters depict eco as patriotic.

by on Feb 9, 2009

Last night I gathered with 20 fellow Buddhists in Hotelephant for a meditation/study/dinner and, for a few hours, turned the heat up to 70, enjoyed a half-non-organic dinner, responded to requests for paper towels and turned on five lights simultaneously over three rooms.  Normally, my thermostat is off at night. Completely. And I’m cozy, if [...]

865 views
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Buddhadharma, via Frank Berliner: The Four Reminders, Meditation Practice, Renunciation and Retreat.

by on Feb 8, 2009

Via Frank Berliner, from the Holiday 2008 issue. Let’s explore the teaching on The Four Reminders, or The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind Toward the Dharma. Generally speaking, this teaching is connected with the Medium level of motivation to practice meditation, which we discussed in the Summer issue. The Buddha taught that our human [...]

970 views
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Yoga teacher Shiva Rea ~ by Scott Rodwin. [in Denver this weekend]

by on Jan 28, 2009

It’s easy to get hyperbolic when trying to convey my experience of studying with famous yoga teacher Shiva Rea. Let’s just say that the cliche “a force of nature” applies. I first met Shiva at the Estes Park Yoga Journal Conference in 2007.  She was teaching a 400-person class in the main hall, so I [...]

1,177 views
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UPDATE [elephant journal columnist] Frank Berliner is fine; please do tonglen for him.

by on Jan 26, 2009

The below update on our dear columnist (from our first issue, 6.5 years ago), friend, mentor, popular Naropa Professor and therapist Frank Berliner‘s health is via Brooks Witter…I’ll update this blog as soon as I hear new news. UPDATE: Hello all, I want to share with you the latest on Frank’s health and well being. He [...]

1,528 views
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