The new website for HH the 14th Dalai Lama is really fantastic and everyone should check it out. I have seen H.H. 3 times in person now and each time is pure joy. No matter what faith you may be, it is simply remarkable to see someone that radiates such supreme calm and happiness at all times.

Turning the Prayer Wheels

There are prayer wheels out every door of our home and office. It is impossible for me to pass one without giving it a few spins. 3 to be exact. Each and every time I do it, it reminds me of my days spent turning the prayer wheels in Kathmandu at the Swayambhunath and Boudhanath stupas. My good friend Kazi and I always walk around in odd numbers, 3, 7, 9... so we have to carefully count our repetitions as we are likely to forget as we watch pilgrims and locals walk clockwise around the stupa with us. I hope all of you get to visit a stupa at some point. There are quite a few in the US and canada and I try to visit them whenever I travel, but nothing holds the power of the great stupas of Nepal for me.

Reflecting on how lucky one is

To have a few days off with my family and remember how incredibly blessed I am to have my adorable wife and son with me on the path. Love may be attachment and a Buddhist pariah but I would not know how to build a quality life without it. I hope my son grows up knowing how loved he really is.


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Location:Newman St,Charlevoix,United States

Another distracted night

In this amazing wired world, I can connect to our website, our suppliers, our customers from home,mobile, or iPad. This sounds great, but my goal to live in the present is corrupted as i read a book, edit a blog post, email with friends in bangkok and play pinball seemingly at once. My calm is ruined and sleep will not come until late. I love my gadgets, but sometimes they need to be quietly shelved for a set of simple beads while i count mantras


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Thoughts on Kathmandu

In just a few weeks I will be back in Kathmandu Nepal. My family first visited Kathmandu in 2000 and found a bustling, chaotic and spiritual city. There were working streetlights, improving infrastructure and a feeling that nepal was on it's way towards being a modern city. Now Kathmandu is pure chaos, the traffic lights have long gone out and power is out 16 hours a day to conserve energy. During the civil war millions of people moved to the city for safer conditions and they remain there in abject poverty. These beautiful gentle people now have to choose between dozens of political parties. There is serious discontent with the government and the current path the country is taking. Where once you saw only smiles there is a stern grimace on the face of Many nepalis. The global recession has not been kind to nepal. With very few tourists locals need to find ways to survive on less and less. My prayers are with the people of nepal and we will continue to support artisans by traveling to nepal and finding worldwide markets for them.





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Kathmandu

I just got off the phone with friends in Kathmandu. Rates are horrible nowadays so I used skype. Our plans for the week are complete. We will be able to spend time with our prayer flag makers at their shop and at boudanath stupa. There is nothing that can top the great stupa for me. It is such a powerful place. I think of the legend of the great stupa every time I visit. You can get the book from our friends at dharma publishing I highly recommend it.


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A family retreat with our son Carter and the dogs. Happy holidays from sander and christy and the dharmashop team!

Our trip to Thailand and Nepal is booked

This year christy and I will be going to Asia for 8 days to shop, visit temples and work with our artisans and business partners in Kathmandu and Bangkok. We are looking forward to the trip and will be blogging about it here.