"Ghost Train 4" by Emmet Tulos via Flickr (ravensong75). Creative Commons Attribution.

Craig Matsu-Pissot submitted “ever mind“ to Mandala to our great pleasure. It reads like a meditation on the nature of the mind and is certainly worth lingering over.

“… shadows of behaviors which have appeared repetitively / like the passing cars of a ghost train / which of course leads back to a birth place no longer relevant …”

From Mandala January-March 2010.

Grief Rooted, watercolor on skin parchment. © 2000 Cathy Weber www.cathyweber.net

“Whenever I am with a group of people who have experienced extraordinary suffering, the first thing I notice is a lightness in the air,” writes long-time FPMT student Adele Hulse. “… [I]f you spend your time with the suffering, you can’t really lose.”

From Mandala October-November 2006.

A devotional poem for Lama Zopa Rinpoche by Singaporean Santi Yeo Her Chuen.

From Mandala July-September 2012.

Roy Fraser reflects on his fifteen-year relationship with Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey (1921-1995). From Fraser’s first meeting with Gen Rinpoche to building the fully realized master’s cremation stupa, Fraser celebrates his connection and service to Gen Rinpoche.

From Mandala January-February 1996.

“The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s play about the evolution of samsara and the Buddhist approach to breaking free from it, can be performed by older children and adults. And for those who are stage shy, just reading the play gives a good overview of the Buddhist path.

From Mandala April 1988.

“Thangka Exhibition at Maitreya Instituut Amsterdam” by Berty Sieverding, Ies Walker, Marlies Bruin. From Mandala April-June 2012.

A simply written poem, “Love and Freedom” illustrates some of the struggles of Tibet’s younger generation in exile.

From Mandala September 2002.

Francesca Hampton’s short story about a young monk trying to help an emotionally disturbed Western man shows what it really means to practice, to be a spiritual teacher and to help someone who is suffering.

From Wisdom #2 – 1984.

What would you do if you were threatened by a gang of macaques? Dana Lissy, author of “Surrendering to Monkeys: Letting Go of the Self,” finds spiritual freedom at the end of this dramatic tale from life in India.

From Mandala July-September 2011.

In April of 2011, Mandala received the sad news that Liberation Prison Project student, Robert Page, had taken his own life (obituary page 52 of July-Sept 2011). Robert was a talented musician and artist who studied with Liberation Prison Project during a ten year prison sentence and after his release five years ago. While incarcerated, Robert created a beautiful image of a double dorje and offered it to Liberation Prison Project. The image was used, as well as other prisoner art, for a series of journals and notebooks produced by Liberation Prison Project to raise funds for the project.

From Mandala July-September 2011.