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Quiz: Might you possess the perspicacity to understand just how seductive (biologically significant and profitable) grasslands are? Or might you consider grasslands a cow’s lunch waiting to happen? I live in British Columbia, Canada’s most biodiverse province, and though grasslands make up less than one percent of its land mass, more than a third of endangered and at-risk species call grasslands home (!). So ho Read more

Nearly ten years ago my partner, myself, and a group of students and other supporters founded Clear Sky, our wonderful retreat center in beautiful southeastern British Columbia. We wanted a place to do longer meditation retreats, so we bought property where we could do that.  Easy, right? You can imagine how I felt when I realized that we now had a business to run. Wha–––t? I had experience as a self-employed profess Read more

In the beginning was the word. And hey, what was that word, anyway? Which language was it in? Did it have any nuances it’d be helpful to know about? Nowadays most of us are in favor of greater mindfulness. Does the word “mindfulness” work for you? I prefer “awareness,” I’m not sure why, maybe because it feels like “mindfulness” gets bandied about so much it’s losi Read more

Which would you choose: happiness, or 16 different kinds of bliss? I’m wondering because classic Buddhist teachings don’t address happiness; they do, however address 16 different categories of bliss. That makes me think that some people were really paying attention! Every time I hear about “happiness” studies nowadays, it sounds like a really fat brush stroke by comparison. It still strikes me as awesome that generat Read more