Marvelous Healing in Wonder

Charlotte J. Beck, Everyday Zen: Love and Work: Our only freedom is in knowing, from years of observation and experiencing, that all personally centered thoughts and emotions (and the actions born of them) are empty. They are empty; but if they are not seen as empty they can be harmful. When we realize this we […]

Why You’ll Never Reach Your Potential

The American entrepreneur and investor Sam Altman writes on persistence and luck, A big secret is that you can bend the world to your will a surprising percentage of the time—most people don’t even try, and just accept that things are the way that they are. People have an enormous capacity to make things happen. […]

Don’t Compare Yourself

Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour on not comparing yourself: You are driven by your heart, you’re driven by your talent, and you’re driven by your instinct. And if you start to question and look at what people are doing to the left of you or to the right of you, you are going to lose that […]

Anger is Red-Hot Coal

Cognitive scientist and author Guy Claxton writes in The Heart of Buddhism: Practical Wisdom for an Agitated World (1999): Buddhism describes getting angry as being like picking up a red-hot coal in your bare hands to throw at someone else. I remember one occasion on which His Holiness The Dalai Lama was asked whether it […]

What’s Wrong with Our Corporate Boards

Michael J. de la Merced of the New York Times summarizes Warren Buffett’s complaints about the poor state of many corporate boards in his 2019 Berkshire Hathaway annual letter: Too few women serve on them. Directors are often captive to the management teams they are meant to supervise, particularly when it comes to acquisitions that […]

The Cooperative Magic of Work

Dylan Pahman, fellow at the conservative think tank Acton Institute, writes, “Work,” wrote the Reformed theologian Lester DeKoster, “is the form in which we make ourselves useful to others.” I like this definition because it puts things in a realistic, everyday perspective. Certainly, people can work just because they want a paycheck to spend on […]

Standing Up For Your Values

Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, discusses CEO activism and the role of corporate ethical responsibility in this New York Times interview with David Gelles (Corner Office column): Gelles: PayPal was one of the first financial companies to take a stand on guns. How did you arrive at that decision? Schulman: If you’re going to have […]

Our Planet Does Not Need Our Saving

Adam Frank, professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester, writes in a New York Times op-ed, Our planet does not need our saving. The biosphere has endured cataclysms far worse than us—and after millions of years thrived again. Even the Earth’s five fearsome mass extinctions became opportunities for the biosphere’s creativity, driving new rounds […]

Relaxing With Ambiguity

Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron writes in When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (2005): The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does not believe in God… Theism is a deep seated conviction that there’s some hand to hold… Nontheism is relaxing in with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present […]

The Rock Test to Avoid Being Accused of Sexual Harassment

Anne Victoria Clark (The Medium’s Human Parts blog) offers tips for men confused on how to treat women they work with: It’s as clear cut as this: Treat all women like you would treat Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. I know, this sounds weird, but trust me, this is a visualization exercise that will work wonders […]