My Memoir - Through Walking the Dhamma Path

  The Results of the Meditation with My Daughter I can’t quite find the right word for what I felt—disappointed? Heartbroken? Neither fits exactly. For years, I had been holding onto one vision. In it, Layla would complete her first ten-day meditation course—the one I had carefully planned for her—and walk away transformed. She would be ready to step into the world of college life with a calm mind and a strong heart, to cross that invisible bridge into adulthood without her mother hovering nearby, constantly adjusting the sails to keep her ship steady. I imagined her as grounded, resilient, and self-assured. No more late-night visits to my room at 2 a.m., her eyes swollen from tears over a fight with a boyfriend or a falling-out with a friend. No more running to me for quick fixes to life’s messiness. From across the country in California, I wouldn’t be able to pick up the pieces for her anymore. For years, I’ve been her safety net. Last summer was proof: I cut my own meditation se...

  Three Traditions, One Heart Last week, I woke up in the mountains of West Virginia at a serene Sri Lankan monastery. Around 4:30 a.m., I opened my cabin door to find the full moon glowing so brightly that its light streamed through the tall forest, turning the ground into a world of silver and shadow. It was breathtaking. A deer stood quietly at my front door, as if greeting me with gentle compassion. Then, something remarkable unfolded again this weekend. I found myself immersed in a completely different expression of Buddhism—the Mahayana tradition—at Chuang Yen Monastery, wrapped in the golden beauty of fall. The stillness, the architecture, and the chanting revealed another facet of the same timeless truth. I concluded the weekend in the warmth of my own Thai tradition, at a temple in upstate New York. Three paths, three traditions, yet one heart of Dhamma. Tomorrow, my journey continues at Thich Nhat Hanh’s Blue Cliff Monastery. I’m deeply looking forward to it—and to th...