THERE ARE MANY WAYS to engage with Buddhist teachings. You can read books on the dharma and take classes in person or online. You can meditate on your own or attend retreats. You can engage with Buddhism as an academic or translator, or relate to it primarily as a guide for living more harmoniously. You can connect with the dharma through your affinity with a particular spiritual or cultural community, or become a devotee of a Buddhist master. There isn’t just one way to enter the path.

In my case, it wasn’t ideas or books that sparked my interest in the dharma; it was meditation. I was a graduate student and a “word person,” but when I learned to practice, something fundamental opened up for me, something