Beloved Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh is in Massachusetts General Hospital being treated for pneumonia. The text of his letter from the hospital and more details are available at the Oxherding and Zencast blogs. (photo from Plum Village) The author of numerous books, the 83-year-old monk was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by…

This past weekend I went to a homecoming party for a friend who I haven’t seen in about a year. Seeing this friend for the first time in such a long time brought up some things that made me think a lot about the concepts of “self” and “ego.” I felt terribly insecure at this…

This week I had the opportunity to read and see two radically different narratives about the traumas of immigration, and I thought I’d offer each a short review:  the movie was District 9 by South African Neil Blomkamp and the novel was The Lazarus Project by Bosnian American Aleksandar Hemon.

What would Sid do? Before Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment at age 35 he was a confused twenty and thirty-something looking to learn how to live a spiritual life. He had an overbearing dad, expectations for what he was supposed to do with his life, drinks were flowing, lutes were playing, and the women were all…

More from Beliefnet and our partners
More from Beliefnet and our partners