About Me

I have been obsessed with the question of how to avoid living the “life of quiet desperation” most adults seem to live since I was 12 years old. After years of experimentation with different lifestyles as a teenager I became a Forest Monk in the Thai Buddhist tradition at 21, and was a monastic for three years.

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Since then I have continued to explore, experimenting with observant Jewish practice, Advaita Vedanta, Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, and Western Esoteric traditions while all along the way reading philosophy and science. The philosophical teachings of the Buddha, Hellenic (particularly Stoic) philosophers, and the rogue genius Baruch Spinoza have been consistent conversation partners for me and still are.

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I taught meditation for 15 years, and have worked as a Yoga teacher, Ayurvedic counsellor, Chinese medical acupuncturist, teacher, community leader and education director, journalist, writer of creative nonfiction and ghostwriter.

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I have written extensively for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and have been published in Arc Magazine, Philosophy Now, Lions Roar, Ricochet, the Forward, Religion Dispatches, and elsewhere.