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By chance, world leaders and I are in Geneva today, on peace missions of different sorts. Events of the past two weeks spur reflection on the ways in which their big mission and my little one intersect. I arrived in Switzerland feeling quite concerned about potential US military strikes against Syria and their uncertain consequences, […]

Smiles all around at the close of our second annual silent meditation retreat with SanghaSeva at the Dharmalaya Institute in the Indian Himalayas. It’s always fascinating to spend a week with people without hearing their voices, and then finally get to ‘meet’ them, while having a sense of already knowing them in a way. Now we’re preparing to welcome new arrivals […]

This story was written in response to a request from my friend Rodger Kamenetz to post to his popular Jew in the Lotus page. An Unlikely Path How did an artist and activist fresh out of college wind up opening a vegetarian restaurant and community center just up the street from H.H. the Dalai Lama, […]

I just came home from an exhilarating (and exhausting) day volunteering for the Obama campaign in Colorado. Knocking on doors in Jefferson County, one of the most polarized in the nation (characterized as “the swing county of the swing state”), I learned a lot about my neighbors and about the new political landscape of the […]

The first building on the new eco-campus of the Dharmalaya Institute is just two steps away from being ready to welcome the public, and Dharmalaya needs your help to reach the finish line. The neotraditional adobe-and-bamboo building survived its second heavy monsoon season in perfect shape, thanks to the dedicated team of Himachali craftsmen, local labourers, and […]

I just spent the evening with Former President Bill Clinton, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, and hundreds of other engaged citizens in Denver. The setting was a high school gym in one of the Mile High City’s lowest-income neighborhoods, with the locals turned out in their Sunday best, eager to hear a proven past president’s take […]

Hi all, a housekeeping note: I’ve just consolidated three different blogs into their new home, here. Unfortunately, most of your past comments wouldn’t transfer, and i apologize for that. Now that it’s all on WordPress, the comments will be exportable if ever they need to move again.

After a marathon rush of construction activity through the winter, Dharmalaya held its first programmes in the new (and still-unfinished) main building of the Dharmalaya Institute. Over thirty participants from ten countries made the journey to Bir for the occasion. Organised in collaboration with SanghaSeva, the inaugural programmes included a one-week silent meditation retreat led by […]

LET’S SEE, WHERE WERE WE…? When we left you with the season finale cliffhanger last June, we had just bundled up our baby building with prayers that she’d survive the monsoon rains without a roof. That was asking a lot from a big mud sandcastle, and we put her fate in the hands of a […]

From the Earthville Blog: The biggest news on the construction of the Dharmalaya Institute is in regard to our race against time to get the roof on our baby building before the onslaught of the monsoon rains this month… and the update is that, well, we couldn’t win, so we’ve done our best to change the […]