They carried me into the forest. The sal trees, shaken by our clamour Showered small soft flowers on us. The trees’ slender trunks rose column-like Into the leaves, and everywhere, that scent. He was born on a floor of petals. Later, he will talk about impermanence: Bodies are flowers, fading. Faded, the newborn.
Month: July 2017
Buddhism is Bhutan’s Key to Working with the Great Buddhist Powers
India and China are right now locked in a dispute over a plateau (known as Doklam in India and Donglang in China) that lies at a junction between China, the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim, and Bhutan. My focus today is not on the technicalities of the border dispute (this analysis by Wangcha Sangey, a […]
Global Travels, Local Practice
This month I am far from my birth home in Montana and my adoptive home in Seattle. I am in China, currently in a monastery outside of Ningbo called “Golden Mountain.” As I told a friend recently when discussing my travels, there is a saying, attributed to Native American wisdom, that a person should not […]