Reading Archive
In Hardship, Choose Bewilderment Over Cleverness
Toko-Pa Turner
In grappling with degenerative autoimmune disease, I often wished for a speedy redemption, for something meaningful to come out of my pain and suffering. But every time I tried, I’d be humbled b...
The Great Divide
Mark Vandeneijnde
The great divide: On the left there is business It loves to think and problem solve Move fast and talk with resolve Perform so hard it wears you down If only it would stop to breathe and look a...
The Eagle And The Chicken
Jamie Glenn
A fable is told about an eagle that thought he was a chicken. When the eagle was very small, he fell from the safety of his nest. A chicken farmer found the eagle, brought him to the farm, and raised ...
Sacred Vs. Survival Language
Vyaas Houston
Avidya is the defining of a self which is not the self; with happiness in what is actually suffering; with purity in what is really impurity; and permanence in what is really impermanent. Avidya pe...
The False Self From Childhood
Eric Jones
I ran across a developmental psychology theory not long ago that I’ve had bouncing around in the back of my head ever since. It comes from the pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, wh...
Listening Is A Great Art
J. Krishnamurti
You know, listening is a great art. It is one of the great arts we have not cultivated: to listen completely to another. When you listen so completely to another, as I hope you are doing it now, you a...
Sacred Mess Of Nature
Lucy Grace
A seed eventually blooms into the most beautiful flower. But first it must break down, crack open, travel through mud without any guarantees and give over to instinct and the will of existence. It doe...
Genjo Koan
Dogen Zenji
Enlightenment is like the moon reflected in the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wid...
Is There A Real World Out There?
Anil Seth
Here’s a commonsense view of perception. Let’s call it the “how things seem” view. There’s a mind‑independent reality out there, full of objects and people and place...
What Is Prayer?
Rupert Spira
And what is prayer? Again, I would like to remain silent, for silence is the closest we come to God before losing ourself in that. Prayer is simply to remain as the ‘I am’ before the words...
A Jeweler's Eye
Suleika Jaouad
Of my diagnosis, he had asked, “If you could take it all back, would you?” The answer I arrived at was this: “The tangling of so much cruelty and beauty has made of my life a stra...
Suffering Is Never Alone But Shared
Richard Flyer
I feel and see the flow of life and death inside and outside me. Sometimes, I resist in despair, saying — why should this be, all the senseless misery? Tears are unleashed. Torrents of liquid...