Dharma explorations by Stephanie Noble

From over fifteen years of sharing her understanding of Buddhist concepts

  • Into the Woods

    My husband and I just returned from a camping trip. We’re not the hardy adventurers that some of our friends are, so you won’t be reading about great feats in the wilderness. But we find that just being among the trees renews us. We don’t have to DO anything but sit and breathe it all…

  • Befriending the Breath

    In the vipassana meditation tradition we are taught to focus on the breath. Why? Aren’t there more interesting things to focus on? Certainly there can be. Take listening, for example. Yesterday in class we sat outside in the cool morning air and did a listening meditation, as if it were a symphony. There were many…

  • To tell the truth, we lie all the time

    When I was eleven and just moved to San Francisco, for some reason I began making stuff up. In a class with three sets of twins, I fabricated a twin of my own named Catherine who lived in Cleveland with my grandmother because ‘we didn’t get along’.  I told my closest friend, who was also…

  • Patience is not just waiting around

    Patience is considered a virtue, yet in our go-getter culture where decisive action and taking the lead is prized, patience is often undervalued, as if it is just sitting around and waiting for someone else to give us what we want. But patience is not just waiting. It’s learning to be present with what is,…

  • Does it feel like you’re running on empty?

    A friend of mine recently told me that she hadn’t realized how much of a weight she had been under from the duties involved in administering her father’s estate until the day she gave the final checks to her brothers and sisters and was truly done with that sad responsibility. Weight lifted, she could suddenly…