What's the purpose of meditation?

"In Tibetan, the word for meditation means, 'To become familiar.' We are trying to become familiar with ourselves -- with how our minds work. It all starts with being here, in the present moment.

It can be very uns...

I see it in their faces. Here at the Homeless facility. The way the young mother looks at her baby in the stroller, “What’s going to become of us now?”

The old woman asleep, head down on the metal bench, “So many places I’ve slept, maybe this, my last, there’s no more ‘going’ in me.”

The rude boys running past, trying to look cool in clothes from ‘donations,’ all of them thinking, “I’m going to be bigger than this someday!”

The men in the Alcohol and Drug T...

I wish you could hear him, my lama, eyes welled up with tears, arms wide embracing the World, telling us about how everyone, everywhere, are all beautiful ‘Mother Beings.’ Beings who have loved us and nurtured us throughout innumerable lifetimes.

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

“The Body is a Cancer” by Kiley Jon Clark

Imagine doing your own meditation. You are sitting there minding your own business when suddenly, you feel someone watching you. Some guy is standing across the road glaring at you. You decide to just ignore him, unfortunately, more arrive.  

Folks start showing up from all over the World, only to watch you do your own meditation practice. If this was all, it might be fine. But, they have other plans.

Soo...

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

“Mindfulness and the lost coffee” by Kiley Jon Clark

A Buddhist Life, is a life devoted to compassion and discovering the Buddha-nature within ourselves and others.

This was demonstrated; the very first time I shared a meal with my Teacher, Lama Tulku Tsori Rinpoche. I didn't know what Buddhists did before they ate, so I asked him if we should pray or something?

I will never forget what happened next. Then Lama Tulku got his fork, scooped up a sin...

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

“there is no philosophizing here” by Kiley Jon Clark

 All that is happening is just “WHAT IT IS”, straight forward, Truth. My hands are in the toilet, there is no philosophizing here, my work boots are covered with blood and spit of the homeless, there is no philosophizing here, outside the window a black man is screaming obscenities at his "so-called" wife who is white and toothless, there is no philosophizing here, an old woman turns circles i...

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

“Release the Bees!” by Kiley Jon Clark

When I worked at the State Hospital with folks that were Mentally Challenged, people always told me, “God bless you, son. You’re going to have “Rewards in Heaven” for you work!” But when I would tell them about all the volunteer opportunities there, it seemed they didn’t care much for these rewards in Heaven themselves.

Then, when I went to work at a Children’s Home as a Houseparent to twelve te...

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

“Suddenly, from the Void.” by Kiley Jon Clark

I was alone for the first time in my life. I mean, really alone.

Here I was, living in a tiny apartment, because after seventeen years of marriage, she could no longer accept my drinking.

I was a good provider. We had the house, cars and grass to mow.  I wasn't there emotionally for her or the kids. I had become my father, I guess. So, one day in early 2005, she just loaded up the kids and left...

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

“Killing for my Daughter” by Kiley Jon Clark

The Buddha said, “No one can make us angry, if the seed of anger is not already in our hearts.” So, as any good Buddhist, I’ve been trying to uproot that seed for years.

Sometimes I’m foolish enough to think that I have actually removed the seed of anger from my heart, then my cell rings, and it’s my ex-wife. And I discover, nope, it’s still there!

I wanted to start off with a little humor,...

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

“The White Bird” by Kiley Jon Clark

Of all my childhood, I recall nothing as vividly as the majestic white bird.

When I was six years of age my family moved from the city to a small town. The town was ninety-eight percent of Mexican descent. We had moved to follow another one of my father’s failed business ventures.

My father was a drunkard, with bouts of depression. In his alcohol poisoned mind, it would seem that the undeserving had it all, ...

For some reason, at the homeless facility, a lot of people can’t seem to remember my name. Most folks around here just call me ‘Buddha.’ I think it is because, three times a week they hear over the intercom system, ‘Buddhist Mediation in the Chapel’, and then see me walking that way to lead the group and also, many are involved in the group or have attended before.

I work here full-time teaching Job Skills and Workforce Readin...

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

Maybe it was my American Puritan upbringing, but I’ve got a problem with judging people. I don’t do this much with ordinary folk, but mostly spiritual leaders. When I hear of one stumbling into ‘misappropriation of funds’ or ‘sex with students,’ I think, “Oh my God, how could they do such a thing?” And I get so upset; it’s almost like shooting a mental finger at them.

And you know what Buddha said about that, ‘When...

Where the Buddha Meets the Road

I wish you could hear him, my lama, eyes welled up with tears, arms wide embracing the World, telling us about how everyone, everywhere, are all beautiful ‘Mother Beings.’ Beings who have loved us and nurtured us throughout innumerable lifetimes.

To hear Lama Tulku Tsori Rinpoche tell it, not only sentient beings, but everything in the universe, whether plant, animal, mineral, seen or unseen, all of creation are ‘Mother Beings�...