A childhood fascination with caves has led me to a lifetime of great adventures underground.
After developing a reputation as a mountain climbing “sandbagger,” it should have come as no surprise that a songwriter-climber friend of mine would eventually craft a playful song poking fun at me. What’s surprising is how good the song turned out!
In this episode, I reminisce on the dozens of celebrities I’ve encountered over the years.
Lifestyle design allowed me to retire at the age of 41. I’m not a wealthy man but I live an incredibly rich life.
With life becoming progressively more strained and strange—death, despair, giving up, loneliness and isolation in the world around me—I turn to meditation to navigate the uncertain waters ahead.
Reflections on some of the creators of the American counterculture—Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters, and the Grateful Dead—and the impact they had on my life.
A teenage fascination with Jim Morrison and the Doors led to a 20-year obsession about uncovering everything in the history of the band and writing a book about it.
With plans to soon embark upon a 1,000-year-old 700-mile walking pilgrimage in southeastern Japan, we spent a week doing a 60-mile reconnaissance of this classic ascetic Buddhist circuit.
Reflections on a first big road trip around the mountains of the western U.S. that would spawn a decade of tireless mountain wandering.
A trio of summers working as a volunteer forest fire lookout would set the tone for a love and appreciation for mountains that persists to this day.
During the second half of our group pilgrimage, we encountered a giant snake during breakfast one morning, we visited several historically significant temples, and an unexpected illness reminded us of the uncertainty in all experience.
In this episode, I answer listener questions about Buddhist “leadership,” the tenure of monks, and the practices of alms mendicants.
For two summers, I lived in a haunted old house in coastal California. The good new is: I made friends with this spooky spirit. Believe it or not?!!
This week, a group of nine gathered in Bangkok to embark upon an 11-day pilgrimage of sacred Buddhist sites around Thailand.
In this episode, I respond to listener questions about the benefits of meditation and how to relax the mind through the practice of meditation.
In this episode, I respond to listener questions about how a person becomes a Buddhist monk and the lives of monks in the Theravāda tradition of Buddhism.
Traveling one of the most beautiful roads in the world, I made my way to Hue—the scene of the bloodiest conflicts of the Vietnam War, the final resting place of the beloved Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, and home to a Theravāda Buddhist forest monastery.
By learning to see this life experience in terms of five aggregates—form, feeling, perception, mental states and consciousness—we can begin to unravel misunderstanding and uncover a great path to peace.
While relaxing in the charming beach resort city of Da Nang, Vietnam, I found myself reflecting on desert adventures, the Manson Family, and on the profound spiritual allure of Death Valley.
A gorgeous, mountainous resort city on the ocean, marble mountains covered in Buddhist pagodas and dotted with caves, a massive statue of elegant Guanyin, and hundreds of bonsais—this is fabulous Da Nang!