Beth Roth is a nurse practitioner who teaches mindfulness-based stress reduction and vipassana meditation in Connecticut. She has published descriptive and research articles about meditation in various professional journals. She also writes about parenting and adoption issues for Adoptive Families Magazine and Nuestros Ninos Bonitos. She can be contacted at bethroth@snet.net or through her website.
As the teachings of the Buddha take root in the West, they are inevitably influenced by their encounter with our existing religions. Similarly, as we who were raised in Christian and Jewish traditions engage in a…
When my children Emilio and Claudia were eight and four, I took them to the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts for our first Family Retreat. My husband, who could not get the vacation time from work,…
The Buddha taught that the primary purpose of a human life is to cultivate love, and that this love would create the conditions for peace and happiness in ourselves and in the world. In a famous…
While on silent vipassana retreat many years ago, I was introduced to the Buddhist tradition of Taking Refuge. Along with about one hundred other yogis (retreatants), I repeated after our teachers these phrases: “I take refuge…
The Buddha taught that awareness of our death helps us live a happier and more meaningful life, and enables us to prepare for a conscious and peaceful dying experience. In our culture, purposefully contemplating one’s death,…