Peace Archives ~ CommuniChi

Mexico City Medical Outreach with Tzu Chi International Medical Association

My first mission with Tzu Chi was to Haiti in February 2010 after the great earthquake that took the lives of an estimated 300,000 or more people. I witnessed such incredible suffering, not merely due to the aftereffects of the earthquake, the many lives taken, the families tragically affected, but also due to the severe and long term poverty of the entire country affecting the region for centuries. Although my heart was filled with the joys of building global connections and offering service, I had many questions. After returning to my comfortable and privileged existence in the United...

Systems Change

I leave for one week in Mexico City next week. After having been licensed as an acupuncturist for 22 years, the opportunity to serve so many and help them heal in body, mind and spirit, is an incredible honor and a sacred trust that is never easy to step away from. (Please see my previous blog post to read about My Nhung Kolb, LAC, who will be offering acupuncture at CommuniChi in my absence). Since 2005, I’ve been involved in global health volunteer work, responding to natural disasters and finding ways to build bridges that span the chasms of nation, race, religion, economics, and...

A Day in the Enchantments

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Meditation – More than Simply Powerful Self Care

Human experience, perceived and filtered through the deeply conditioned and unconscious belief in a separate, inherently existent self, is pure fiction. The ultimate goal of meditation, from a Buddhist perspective, is to remove these faulty perceptual filters, and to free the individual from the confusion and negative consequences of being lost in delusion. Wisdom is the key. In contemporary new age, liberal capitalist thinking, meditation is often promoted as a self-help technique. Therapists and health practitioners advise clients to use it to control blood pressure and calm the emotions....

Medicine

Glacial erratic covered in moss, mushrooms, and licorice root. Groceries for the rest of week were in the cardboard box on the back of my new bike as I suddenly realized I was going down. I had tried to turn too sharply on the sidewalk, looking for the button to activate the crosswalk light. Foolish maneuver in hindsight. Bam! The sound of my helmet hitting the concrete, like a cosmic exclamation point and still reverberating days later, urges me to wake up and be more careful. Karma is ripening in each moment. Serious injury or death could be around the next corner. This moment, this life,...

Balanced Perspective

Thanksgiving 2018. A holiday founded on colonialism and genocide, repurposed to allow gratitude and connection – with family, community, and all life. As I turn the compost pile in the front yard, a neighbor walks to her car beneath a sunny Seattle morning sky with double rainbows. “Happy Thanksgiving Jordan”. Returning the perfunctory greeting, I am aware of the deep inner conflict and discomfort at any hint of celebration over a holiday which – for some – symbolizes the beginning of a centuries long European assault upon indigenous peoples in America, which...