Franca Leeson is A Serious Buddhist!

Buddhist practice has cultivated in me an interest in states of mind before death, so naturally this little op-ed piece in the New York Times caught my eye: quotations taken from inmates’ last statements in Texas just before being executed. I found it moving. All were interesting. Here are a few that struck me:

"My heart goes is going ba bump ba bump ba bump."

"I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together. Sometimes you don’t know what to say."

"Could you please tell that… Continue

My friend's wise girl strikes again. She ("Short-Pants) is 7, her younger sister ("Buddy-Roo") is 5. Here's the relevant section:

“Then I’m not your child anymore!” Buddy-roo screamed it at me.

This was after I refused her a DVD movie viewing during breakfast. She stuck out that bottom lip and stomped away.

“That might change,” Short-pants said to her.
“No it won’t,” argued Buddy-roo.
“You can’t be sure.”
“Yes I can.”
“Well, that might change, too.”

How does Short-pants know such things?… Continue

Yet another priceless story, from the same family whose mom writes the Maternal Dementia blog. This one was written by the dad (a.k.a. "De-facto"). "Buddy-roo" (her blog pseudonym) is 5 years old, but clearly has a precocious grasp of relative truth...

This morning Buddy-roo announced to Maggie that she wanted a peanut butter and chocolate sandwich for breakfast.
Maggie said, "Ok, I can make you one."
Buddy-roo said,"I wanted one last night too, bu… Continue

Just wanted to post a link to my friend Maggie's blog, which is quite brilliant. This entry, called "Parental Therapy", expresses the wonder thought that "Parenting is the most transparent form of therapy." I would add that it's darned good dharma practice too. Here's the excerpt that re… Continue

The primary instruction for dzogchen is "do nothing". Tehching Hsieh did that for a year, but not for dzogchen, for art. Check out the New Yor… Continue