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Writings

The Fertile Abyss

La Llorona, La Malinche, and the Role of the Terrible Mother Archetype in Transcending Oppression.

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MA Thesis

MOUNTAIN LION IN RETREAT

Chasing a mountain lion alone in the dark: a true story.

THE RED POPPY

A commentary on one of my favorite poems and how it relates to the spiritual path.

LONELY CABIN IN THE PINES

Poem from three-year retreat

MISTAKEN COMPASSION

Even with the best of intentions to generate compassion, there are ways we go astray by deluding ourselves. This becomes apparent when, instead of feeling nurtured by offering compassion in thought or deed, we are left with the bitter taste of negative emotion.

THERE IS NO PUNISHMENT

When we encounter suffering in our lives, we sometimes incorrectly view it as punishment. For some of us, this comes from our childhood sense of a punishing God. We are suffering because God is punishing us for being bad. This is not a Buddhist view.

POEMS FROM A RETREAT CABIN

Poems from solitary retreat

THE DISCONTENT OF HAPPY ENDINGS

We sometimes assume that only with proper circumstances will we feel ease and joy. We spend endless time and energy fixing our outer world, in the hope that that will fix our inner world. And yet, it simply doesn’t work. We must find the willingness to work with our circumstances as they are right now. In fact, unanswered desire is where life itself is lived.

STRESS IS INEFFICIENT

It is ridiculous to do things in hopes that only once things are finished can I relax and feel good. Why not skip the middleman, and simply relax right now in the doing?

ALLOW DISSOLUTION

We know if we work hard enough, life will eventually come to blossoming fruition. But lately I’m realizing that is just not true. Or at least it is only half the story. The other half of the story is dissolution: the way things fall apart.

WORKING WITH DESIRE

The radical notion of allowing ourselves to be nourished by the hunger of desire is a turning towards the desire, rather than our automatic turning away from desire. We turn away from our desire by chasing the object of our desire.

GRATITUDE

The cornerstone of my spiritual life can be summed up with one word: gratitude. Without gratitude, no matter how “spiritual” I might look or act, my heart is closed and cold, and there is no room for the mystery of the divine.

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