Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh believes that putting an economic value on nature is not enough. Fundamental change can happen only if we fall back in love with our planet. Read more: Banking Crisis, Climate Change, Dalai Lama, Free Market, Economics, Buddhism, Eco-Buddhism

It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing. --Elizabeth Kolbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe Looking again and again at that which cannot be looked at, Unseeable reality is seen just as it is. --Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, Mahamudra Aspiration Prayer The firs...

The news coverage of the World Economic Forum at Davos was overshadowed with stories of power, money, celebrity and conjecture. There is another face to this gathering. There is what I will call the Compassionate Heart of the World Economic Forum at Davos. The World Economic Forum describes itself an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world...

Author's Note: On February 21st the Des Moines Register announced that a bill proposing to force the sale of Jackson Pollock's "Mural," in the collection of the University of Iowa's Art Museum, had died. This blog, about the controversy generated by the bill, and also about the cultural forces surrounding it, was composed while the bill was still under consideration. It is hopefully sti...

Wearied by the decline and fall of trust relations in most sectors of society, many have had to seek energy from beyond the headlines. Politics, economics, religion, commerce and family life are zones where trust is so broken that for many the temptation to feel defeatist or to grow