Our Roots

Many traditions, one family

For twenty-five centuries, Buddhist teachings, the Dharma, have been practiced and passed on. Over that time they grew into many traditions across Asia and now the West, each finding its own words for the same understanding. We honor them as one living family. Each is complete in itself, and none is lessened by being honored alongside the others. We try to hold our own views, Buddhist ones included, lightly enough to keep learning and firmly enough to act on what we care about. People from every tradition, and from none, practice here, and whatever wisdom they bring keeps its place.

At the heart of our practice

At the heart of our practice is silent illumination: an open, settled awareness that meets whatever arrives with warmth. It comes to us from Chan, the Chinese school of Buddhism also known as Zen, where a teacher named Hongzhi gave it its name nine centuries ago.

It is less one technique than the ground under all of them. Loving-kindness, awareness of breathing, and the contemplation of change each have a long history of their own. They do not compete. This open awareness is not an instrument in the orchestra. It is the hall the music is played in.

Behind it is one of the Buddha's earliest teachings: the mind is luminous, clouded only by what passes through it. Chan understands this luminous, wakeful nature as Buddha nature. It is already present in each of us, clear and free, and it is the source of our capacity for wisdom and compassion. Practice is learning to recognize what clouds it and let it go, and to recognize, cultivate, and protect what helps us realize it, so that more and more of our life is lived from it.

For the benefit of all

Chan belongs to the Mahayana, the branch of Buddhism that holds up the bodhisattva: one who walks the path of awakening for the benefit of all beings, themselves included. We hold that spirit in an ordinary way. Our own well-being, the well-being of those we care about, and the health of our shared world are one work, and practice serves all three at once. In unsettled times, this is also how we keep from despair: tending what is ours to tend, together, and trusting that care reaches further than we can see. Each of us takes part as an honest participant, beginning where we are.

A Handful of Leaves

We draw on the whole of this family through A Handful of Leaves. It takes its name from a day the Buddha held a few leaves in his hand and said that what he taught was like this handful: only what helps. It gathers teachings from the Buddha's earliest words, from the ways they grew through centuries of practice, and from the living traditions today, and orders them as a practicing life. More about A Handful of Leaves

Taking CARE grows from all of this

Taking CARE is how we practice all of this together: a mindfulness-based program, true to the traditional wisdom and teachings it grows from. Its eight words carry the luminous mind, silent illumination, and the care of the bodhisattva into plain language anyone can begin with today. Behind each word stand teachings A Handful of Leaves gathers from across the traditions, so there is enough in them for a lifetime. What we learned from mindfulness-based teaching keeps the practice practical, and the Dharma keeps it deep.

For modern life

We teach for people living full lives, with work, families, and responsibilities, and we teach plainly and practically. Our teaching is informed by mindfulness-based programs, psychology, and modern science. Much of how we teach grew from years of teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, where RIM began, so it will feel familiar if you came to meditation through a course, a class at work, or an app. Those doors are real doors; they led you here.

For anyone

Buddhist, secular, spiritual, or undecided: people from all traditions and walks of life find support here. The door is the same, and so is the depth. Nothing here will ask you to believe anything. It will ask you to look.