Benji

Feelings aside, make a resolution to behave as a happier person would—someone who enjoys a good intimate relationship, close friendships, and their work. To follow that model, scholars recommend such habits and practices as taking an interest in others and engaging in acts of kindness, counting your blessings and savoring good moments, committing t... See more

One way that I passionately believe we’re connected and need each other is story. The Tibetan Book of the Dead was written centuries ago but is still true for us today. The Greek tragedies, the stories of human struggle, the most ancient words we have, tell the essential narratives of love and loss, suffering and triumph, rage and forgiveness, all ... See more

When this sort of confrontation with limitation takes place, Chapin writes, “a precious state of being can dawn. . . . You’re not seeing the landscape around you as something that needs to transform. You’re just seeing it as the scrapyard it is. And then you can look around yourself and say, OK, what is actually here, when I’m not telling myself co... See more

The late British Zen master Hōun Jiyu-Kennett, born Peggy Kennett, had a vivid way of capturing the sense of inner release that can come from grasping just how intractable our human limitations really are. Her teaching style, she liked to say, was not to lighten the burden of the student but to make it so heavy that he or she would put it down. Met... See more

I cannot get over how interesting it is that these communities of thought, of influence, exist and we’re unconsciously sharing beliefs with others. And that shared beliefs, patterns of practice, have boundaries. You know, Medicare fraud is rampant in Miami but not in Fort Lauderdale, which is twenty minutes away? 

How did you become aware of this ph... See more

I think what it means to be a member of a community is to accept responsibility for what the community does, or to understand that you need to play an active role in shaping the kind of community you want. Passivity, in other words, is the enemy of community. That’s the idea that I’m pursuing in this book, that there’s too much passivity. The notio... See more