REFLECTIONS

• November 4, 2026

  Why Personal Happiness Does Not Exist

  A month and a half inside the Meditation Teacher Program, spent on mindfulness, love and compassion. Why our own happiness is impossible without them, and why they are the instrument through which we feel our connection with all living beings.

• October 25, 2026

  Three Styles of Practice

  There are three styles of practice: letting go, transformation, and knowing the nature of things. The first style, letting go, is about rules, boundaries, and staying away from what causes harm. For our actions this is important. But if the mind gets trapped in the belief “this is right, that is wrong,” we become tense…

• October 22, 2026

  Compassion Has No Object

  Tibetan Buddhism has a practice of love and compassion. Modern science calls it “connection”. The neuroscientist Richard Davidson names it as one of the four pillars of a healthy mind, together with awareness, insight and purpose. People who start this practice often meet one difficulty: directing these feelings at themselves. I met it too, even…

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  September 23, 2026

  Voices

  There is a new page on the site: Voices. Your words and feedback after our programs, and an invitation to add yours.

• August 7, 2026

  Notes Along the Way

  I have lost many good ideas by telling myself I would write them down later. They often come during or after activities and journeys. If I do not write them down, I soon forget them. FIELD NOTES is where I want to keep these thoughts. There will be stories, practical discoveries, questions, mistakes and observations…

• November 12, 2004

  The Bucket

  Garthar Chöde, 2004 In our cell a monk, smiling with all thirty-two teeth, brought me two thermoses of hot water and a bucket for washing my feet. I noticed it was the same bucket the monks’ food had been served from, and was moved by such a degree of respect. The monk had no intention…

• November 11, 2004

  Tea in a Smoky House

  Near Rongmi Drango, 2004 We were climbing towards Mount Laten, soaked in sweat, when a woman on a rooftop invited us in to drink. Up a log with notches for steps, into rooms heated the black way: no chimney, smoke everywhere, tears in the eyes, coal on the teeth. From an old Chinese thermos with…

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  October 30, 2004

  “You Don’t Go to Tibet, You Accept an Invitation”

  Before the road, 2004 At fourteen I read books about Buddhism, yoga and the magic land of Tibet at night. I could not imagine that one day my own tracks would cross Tibetan snow. Eighteen years later a ticket to Beijing was in my pocket. I once came across a phrase: you don’t go to…