Obstacles to the path
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From other traditions
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Discovery and Refuge
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Meditation
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Establishing A Practice
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Fruit of Practice
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Practitioners
Mingo’s Journey: How Insight Meditation Transformed Anxiety into Presence
After years of exploring different spiritual traditions, Mingo discovered that the greatest transformation wasn't found in collecting more practices—it came from committing to one. Drawn to the Insight (Vipassana) tradition for its simplicity and directness, he found a path that helped him stop fighting anxiety and begin relating to it with compassion and awareness. Rather than chasing mystical experiences, Mingo learned that awakening unfolds through ordinary moments, consistent practice, and a willingness to meet life exactly as it is. His story explores how Buddhist meditation transformed his relationship with suffering, the role of Sangha and a trusted teacher in deepening practice, and why an authentic lineage provided the stability he had been searching for. His journey is a powerful reminder that freedom isn't found by escaping life, but by learning to be fully present within it.
Colleen’s Buddhist Journey: Finding Meaning Through Impermanence, Death, and Midlife Awakening
Colleen's Buddhist journey began not in youth, but during a season of profound life transition. Raised in a Catholic family and later building a successful career in art museums, she found herself searching for something deeper after the loss of her parents, the independence of her children, and a growing awareness of impermanence. What began as a curiosity about meditation gradually evolved into a transformative Buddhist practice that reshaped how she understands death, rebirth, compassion, and everyday life. Through honest reflection, Colleen explores the shift from intellectual understanding to lived experience, discovering that Buddhism is less about finding certainty and more about learning to meet life's inevitable changes with wisdom and openness. Her story offers an insightful perspective for anyone navigating grief, midlife transformation, or a sincere search for meaning beyond achievement.
Mara’s Journey Through Grief: How Buddhist Practice and Sangha Transformed Loss
After the devastating loss of her son, Mara turned more deeply toward Buddhist practice, meditation, and Sangha to find a way through grief. Rather than trying to escape her suffering, she learned to meet it with compassion, loving-kindness, and equanimity. Inspired by the Buddha’s teachings on loss and the shared nature of suffering, Mara helped create a grief community where people could sit together, listen, and bear witness to one another’s pain. Her journey reveals how the Dharma does not necessarily take grief away—it can transform our relationship to it, allowing profound loss to become a source of connection, compassion, and service.
Dick & Bonnie: Finding Recovery, Connection, and Community Through Plum Village Buddhism
Dick and Bonnie’s journey into Buddhism began with a moment of profound change. When Dick entered recovery from alcoholism, he discovered a mindfulness-based recovery group rooted in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. What began as a search for healing soon became a shared spiritual path. Together, Dick and Bonnie found a form of Buddhism grounded not only in meditation, but in everyday life—deep listening, mindful breathing, compassionate communication, interbeing, and the support of sangha. Drawing on Dick’s Baptist roots and Bonnie’s Unitarian Universalist background, they see Buddhism not as a rejection of their past, but as an expansion of it. Through Plum Village teachings, their relationship with one another and their community has deepened, while Dick’s work bringing mindfulness and meditation into recovery programs and correctional settings reflects Thich Nhat Hanh’s vision of engaged Buddhism: taking practice beyond the cushion and into the places where compassion is most needed. Their story reveals how Buddhist practice can quietly transform a life—not by separating us from the world, but by teaching us to listen more deeply, respond rather than react, recognize our interdependence, and discover that healing is something we rarely have to do alone.
Dottie’s Journey: From Christianity to a Buddhist Life of Practice, Impermanence, and Rebirth
Dottie’s Buddhist journey began later in life, after decades shaped by an Episcopalian upbringing, marriage, personal struggle, and an ongoing search for a spiritual path that could be lived rather than simply believed. After discovering Buddhist teachings and eventually finding a Tibetan Buddhist Dharma center, she encountered a tradition that spoke directly to questions she had carried for years. Through meditation, Dharma practice, and teachings on impermanence, Dottie began to reconsider her relationship with attachment, death, and what it means to live a meaningful life. Buddhism’s willingness to confront mortality openly helped transform death from something to fear into a natural part of existence. Her understanding of reincarnation evolved more slowly, but over time rebirth became connected to something deeply practical: how she chooses to live now. Taking the bodhisattva vow further transformed this perspective, turning the possibility of returning for the benefit of others into an expression of compassion and purpose. Rather than rejecting her Christian past, Dottie sees her Buddhist journey as an evolution—another way of approaching the enduring questions of who we are, why we suffer, how we live, and what may continue beyond death.
Aaron’s Journey Through Zen, Yoga, and the Transformative Power of Buddhist Retreat
Aaron’s Buddhist journey began with an intense awakening experience at eighteen that fundamentally changed the direction of his life. Searching for a way to understand and ground that experience, he turned first to Ashtanga yoga and later discovered the rigor of Zen meditation and monastic practice. Through retreats, teachers, Sangha, and years of dedicated practice, Aaron came to see monasteries not as places of escape, but as powerful training grounds for developing clarity, compassion, and freedom from suffering. His experience ultimately inspired Dharma Gates, an effort to connect young people with Buddhist practice, retreat opportunities, and contemplative communities. At the heart of Aaron’s path is a conviction that genuine transformation requires more than spiritual experiences—it requires commitment, trustworthy lineage, community, and the willingness to go deeply into practice.
