Author Archives: Michael Gray

About Michael Gray

I first started studying TSK in the mid 1980's and have since attended a number of retreats and workshops at the Nyingma Institute, in both TSK and Buddhist themes. I participated in the life-changing Human Development Training Program in 1991, and upon returning to Albuquerque co-founded an organization, Friends in Time (with a friend who has Lou Gehrig's Disease), which continues to serve people with similiar disabilities. I contributed an essay to "A New Way of Being"--the last one in the book--in which I describe how learning to honor who I have been has broadened and deepened my openness to present experience. I live in New Mexico with my wife and two sons.

Empty Space

My life changed forever twenty years ago, We had driven to a look-out on Route 1 in northern California where, once everyone had parked their cars, the group gathered in a circle and did a few chants. Then they headed … Continue reading

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Simple Insights

I had two insights this past week. They both seem as simple as to be hardly worth mentioning; but I don’t want to forget them. One of those insights was: I feel happier when I am trying to realize my … Continue reading

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The Dreaming of the Sands

We can examine the sinew and bones of experience for their secrets, but it may be that the mystery of time is to be found elsewhere. I have the privilege of knowing people who are working on books and classes … Continue reading

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Pendulums in the Sky with Diamonds

“Leave them alone and they’ll come home, wagging their tails behind them.” –From the writings of 16th century shepherdess, Little Bo Peep. This morning, I was about to use the sound of the pendulum’s ticks and tocks, out in the … Continue reading

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Feeling at Ease

Standing on the shore, perhaps on a cliff above crashing waves, where even the seagulls and ravens cruise far below, or right there at the level of the waves, my shoes settled into wet pebbles; I feel the mist traveling … Continue reading

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Casting the First Brick

“In the act of being curious, what has been settled becomes unsettled. There are no rules, no certainty, and no fixed place at which to arrive. We know that we do not know. We know that our cognition is inadequate, … Continue reading

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What Gets me up?

What gets me up in the morning? Well. I’m glad that something does. It may not be a golden trumpet sounding at the edge of the meadow of sleep, beckoning me into the forest canopy of a new day. But … Continue reading

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Life Imitating Art

Last week, I wrote a piece about a cuckoo bird who transcended his predetermined role in life to save his nest mates. I chose a family of Indigo Buntings because I had just finished reading a novel (“Where the Forest … Continue reading

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The Four Immeasurables

This morning a phrase came back to me while I was sitting for my morning 30 minutes, in what I call meditation but which is more often a moving conveyor belt of thoughts, feelings, intentions, and memories. The phrase that … Continue reading

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Knowing Grief

“In the Lakota/Sioux tradition, a person who is grieving is considered most waken, most holy. There’s a sense that when someone is struck by the sudden lightning of loss, he or she stands on the threshold of the spirit world. … Continue reading

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