A gallery of spiritual poetry and resonant imagery from Oleg Yuzefpolsky
meditation
Horizons of Sharing: Ayya Soma and Buddhist Insights in Italy
Ayya Soma and Bhante Suddhaso in Cisternino. Image courtesy of Ayya Soma Ayya Soma is a Theravada Buddhist bhikkhuni and co-founder of the non-profit Buddhist Insights. Recently, she, fellow co-founder Bhante Suddhaso, and members of her organization arrived in Italy to share the richness of the Theravada life, aspects of which would be commonplace in Southeast Asia. […]
Christian Zen: Unlikely and Unorthodox, or Universal?
I recently received unfortunate news. A Buddhist-Christian interfaith event organized by the International Centre for Teresian-Sanjuanist Studies (CITeS), The University of Mysticism in Ávila, has been cancelled. The event was supposed to take place in July 2020, before the pandemic forced the conference to be held on July 2021. After the recent surge in cases […]
Why is Nature Peaceful?
On a bright, moon-lit night, while walking back to my kuti in a forest in Thailand, I spotted a huge scorpion that had come out of hiding from under a rock. Out of curiosity, I pointed my flashlight directly at it for a moment, then continued to walk the path back to my resting place […]
Why Does the Mind Run Wild?
From being out in the wilderness, I’ve awakened to the reality of how fragile life is in all its form. During the day, I’ve seen bears cause deer and squirrels to flee into hiding. At night, I’ve heard the cries of hungry coyotes and wolves. As one of my teachers once said, the images used […]
No Body at Home
As we explore the body through the breath, it’s necessary to have a trusted guide on your journey into uncharted world. Otherwise, you can end up practicing in unwise ways as I have before. You also need an experienced teacher to tell you when you’re not trying hard enough and when you’re trying too hard. […]
Breathe Easy
A simple meditation object is oftentimes the best object for beginners to meditation. When your mind is running wild and your body feels even more restless, it can hard to settle down. This is particularly true when you’ve chosen to focus on an object that doesn’t provide much substance. That’s why learning to breathe in […]
Breathless
As a teen, I’d occasionally suffer from intense stomachaches, as result of food allergies or physiological imbalances in the body. Witnessing my battles with stomach pain, my father gave me specific instructions for how to find ease, even though I felt my body was under relentless attack. “When you feel pain, breathe as deeply and […]
Why Am I Still Hungry?
I sat cross-legged in meditation for several hours in pain. And I liked it. I was staying at a forest monastery and wanted to better understand how I perceived and reacted to pain in the body, so I decided to spend my entire afternoon sitting through whatever aching arose. In the process, a strange feeling […]