A growing new spiritual practice combines the breathing techniques of yoga with laughter. Practitioners say it helps them achieve joy and spiritual well-being. At a laughter yoga session at Washington National Cathedral, we talk with instructor Diane Cohen, who says laughter yoga releases “that inner essence that we don’t always let out.” More →

August 26, 2016

“If I’m hungry I should eat. If I’m thirsty I should drink. But because of a recognition of a greater and higher need, I choose not to,” says Abdu’l Karim Ewing-Boyd. We visited him and his family in Washington, DC as they prepared to break the long fast leading up to the Baha’i New Year. More →

March 4, 2016

Buddhism became a sanctuary for Dr. Barry Kerzin and led to his ordination as a monk. Now he serves as the Dalai Lama’s personal physician and combines his medical wisdom with love and compassion that translate into empathy. More →

October 9, 2015

“I’ve been a Buddhist for a number of years, and I chant every day, and one of the things that I strongly believe in is that moment of silence, of reflection, for everybody to sit down and be still for a second.” More →

August 28, 2015

“The fast is a time for me to remind myself, to reclaim myself, to be in charge of my body and not simply respond to random physical promptings. This is just something that I look forward to more and more every year and it gives me more time to recognize my strength in prayer.” More →

March 20, 2015

“Gratefulness happens to you. Two things have to come together: something has to be valuable to you, and you have to become aware that it’s given to you,” says Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk. “Then spontaneously in everybody’s heart, gratefulness arises.” More →

September 25, 2014

Leaders of the largest Buddhist temple in the world want it “to be like Mecca is in Islam, a global center,” says Rachelle Scott, an expert on the group and assistant director of religious studies at the University of Tennessee. “Critics question the intentions of the temple. They think that the primary intention is to make money.” More →

June 13, 2014

“Yoga’s techniques and goals move in and through and outside of religion in very interesting and complex ways,” says Debra Diamond, associate curator of south and southeastern Asian art for the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler galleries. Following its Washington debut, “Yoga: The Art of Transformation,” an exhibition on yoga in Indian art history, was at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, and it will soon travel to the Cleveland Museum of Art for the summer. More →

May 16, 2014

Emory University students in “Secular Ethics 101” learn compassion meditation and discuss the possibility of an ethic that will unite the world. More →

February 21, 2014

“Christianity and Buddhism both are trying to think about how we communicate our contemplative tradition in a way that isn’t restricted to the monastic community.” More →

February 21, 2014