We in the "developed" world seem to have many auditory strategies that insulate us from the presence of silence, simplicity, and solitude. When I return to Western culture after time in desert, mountain or forest, I discover how we have filled our world with a multiplicity of noises, a symphony of forgetfulness that keeps our won thoughts and realizations, feelings and intuitions out of audible range.

I've worked in the prison system, on death row and maximum security. I did that work for six years. I've worked with some of the most difficult people in our society. Buddhism was accessible and helpful for these individuals.

Developing our capacity for compassion makes it possible for us to help others in a more skillful and effective way.

When we have disorderly lives, it makes it difficult for our minds to be orderly and for us to be at ease with disorder.

I am always cautious about naming the known, as we often forget to hold in regard those whose names will never be known to anyone outside of their close circle.

Kaz's wilder work captures the great beauty of the human heart and the natural world.

In being with dying, we arrive at a natural crucible of what it means to love and be loved. And we can ask ourselves this: Knowing that death is inevitable, what is most precious today?