Reading Archives (Author)
Presence: The Quality of Consciously Being Here
Kabir Helminski
A common theme runs through all the great spiritual traditions. It goes by many names – awakening, recollection, mindfulness, dhyana, remembrance, zhikr, presence – and by no name at all. ...
The River Cannot Go Back
Kahlil Gibran
It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled, from the peaks of the mountains, the long winding road crossing forests and village...
Giving Simply to Give
Kahlil Gibran
"There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism. And there are those who give and know not the pain i...
Song of the Soul
Kahlil Gibran
In the depth of my soul there is A wordless song – a song that lives In the seed of my heart. It refuses to melt with ink on Parchment; it engulfs my affection In a transparent cloak and fl...
Good in Countless Ways
Kahlil Gibran
You are good when you are one with yourself. Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil. For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house. And a ship without ...
Spaces in Togetherness
Kahlil Gibran
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. Bu...
Tear And A Smile
Kahlil Gibran
I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the multitude. And I would not have the tears that sadness makes to flow from my every part turn into laughter. I would that my life remai...
Are You Bored Yet?
Karen Maezen Miller
"I'm bored." Schoolchildren can be afflicted with it by the second day of summer; workers by the sixth month on the job; spouses by the seventh year of marriage; and readers by the tenth ...
Sitting Aboard Life's Merry-Go-Round
Karl Renz
Welcome! Welcome to the fair! I can see, you’re already sitting on the merry-go-round! It’s great how you are driving! You have a sleek car, with an accelerator and a brake. But most of al...
Conscious Complaining
Karla McLaren
Not to start on a down note, but repressing your emotions can destabilize your psyche and do a number on your overall health. When emotions fester and stagnate, your body reacts to that lack of flow w...
Most Perfect Marriage
Kasturba
"I thank you for having had the privilege of being your lifelong companion and helpmate. I thank you for the most perfect marriage in the world, based on brahmacharya (self-control) and not on sex. ...
Why We Listen Better To Strangers Than Family
Kate Murphy
Once you know people well enough to feel close, there’s an unconscious tendency to tune them out because you think you already know what they are going to say. It’s kind of like when you&r...
What Happens When We Wonder?
Katie Steedly
When I think about wonder I think about waterfalls, newborn babies, and whales. I think about seeds, snowflakes, and rainbows. I think about lightening, skyscrapers, and silk. Wonder defies descriptio...
Forgotten Art of Deep Listening
Kay Lindahl
Think of the difference it would make if each of us felt really listened to when we spoke. Imagine the time it would save to be heard the first time around, instead of having to repeat ourselves over...
It Doesn't Matter If You Believe In It
Kazu Haga
Gravity is a universal law of nature. It doesn't matter if you believe in gravity. You are still governed by its laws, and there is no way for you to escape it. The laws of gravity govern human bo...
What You Do Afterwards
Keith Sawyer
Creativity is all about what you do afterwards. I’m thinking about something that Miles Davis said about jazz improvisation: "It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note...
There Is Only One Taste
Ken Wilber
There is only One State, within which different states arise. There is only One Taste, through which different tastes flow. But One Taste itself neither comes nor goes; it is beyond motion and stillne...
You Must Shout From The Heart
Ken Wilber
The alarming fact is that any realization of depth carries a terrible burden: Those who are allowed to see are simultaneously saddled with the obligation to communicate that vision in no uncertain ter...
Beauty Is The Very Nature Of The Kosmos
Ken Wilber
If science gives us objective Truth, or the “it” of Spirit, and morals give us the Good, or the “we” of Spirit, then Beauty—which is in the “eye” of the behol...
The Theory Behind Forgiveness
Ken Wilber
I always liked the Course's reliance upon forgiveness as a way to remeber the true Self. This is a somewhat unique approach, found in few of the other great wisdom traditions, which usually stress som...
The Thread That Unites Wisdom Traditions
Ken Wilber
Similarities would seem to suggest, among other things, that there are spiritual patterns at work in the universe, at least as far as we can tell, and these spiritual patterns announce themselves with...
In the Lap of Immense Intelligence
Ken Wilber
Because the universe has direction, we ourselves have direction. There is meaning in the movement, intrinsic value in the embrace. As Emerson put it, we lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which ...
Small Graces
Kent Neburn
Night is closing in. It is time for sleep. I have walked a quiet path today. I have done no great good, no great harm. I might have wished for more — some dramatic occurrence, something memor...
Believers in Small Graces
Kent Nerbern
There are those who search God in the quiet places -- no churches, no public displays of piety, no dramatic or flamboyant rituals. They may be found standing in humble awe before a sunset, or weeping...
But It Is There
Kent Nerburn
We are all born with a belief in God. It may not have a name or a face. We may not even see it as God. But it is there. It is the sense that comes over us as we stare into the starlit sky or watch th...
The Mystery of Love
Kent Nerburn
Remember that you don't choose love. Love chooses you. All you can really do is accept it for all its mystery when it comes into your life. Feel the way it fills you to overflowing, then reach o...
Shape Of Silence
Kent Nerburn
The silence is profound this morning. It is not portentous; there seems to be nothing in the waiting. It is a gentle silence, liquid and pastel, a shimmer on still waters. It is good to listen to t...
The Dilemma That Faces Us All
Kent Nerburn
This is the dilemma that faces us all when we decide to walk the difficult path of forgiveness. Are we complicit in wrongdoing if we do not challenge those who wrong us? Or are we contributing to the ...
Turning Survival Inside Out
Kerri Lake
You know how people will lament when they say, “Time to get back to reality,” or “…yeah, but that’s not how the real world works”? What is the real world? Who sugg...
One Legitimate Use of Power
Keshavan Nair
Gandhi never held any official position in government, he had no wealth, the commanded no armies -- but he could mobilize millions. People were willing to serve with him and for him because his ...
Lessons On My 70th Birthday
Kevin Kelly
Today is my birthday. I turn 70. I’ve learned a few things so far that might be helpful to others. For the past few years, I’ve jotted down bits of unsolicited advice each year and much to...
Citizen Of Dark Times
Kim Stafford
Agenda in a time of fear: Be not afraid. When things go wrong, do right. Set out by the half-light of the seeker. For the well-lit problem begins to heal. Learn tropism toward the difficult. We...
The Gaps on Your Resume
Kimberley Patton
My students say to me sometimes, as they apply to doctoral programs or jobs in parish ministry, "How shall I account for the two, or the ten, missing years on my resume How should I explain the gap?" ...
Radical Reflection
Kittisaro
We feel we can capture something by thinking about it. In reality, when we grasp at thoughts, the very process of trying to possess a piece of life ensures that it continually eludes us. We can never ...
Who are you, really?
Kosi
“Any thought that you have had about yourself, however deflated or inflated, is not who you are. It is simply a thought. The truth of who you are cannot be thought, because it is the source of a...
Movie Of Me, Now Playing 24 Hours A Day
Krishna Das
What keeps us away from the gentle rain of grace? It's our endless obsession, all day long, with I, me, mine. We wake up in the morning and start writing "the movie of Me": What am I goi...
Meditate Like Christ
Krishna Das
One day a Canadian man arrived for his first visit with Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji). He didn't know much about Maharaj-ji but had heard about him. Maharaj-ji didn't give lectures or fo...
Practice Without Integration is a Waste
Krishna Das
I once met Roshi Philip Kapleau, the author of The Three Pillars of Zen. He was one of the first Westerners to go to Japan and do intense practice there. He was suffering from very advanced Parkinson&...
Why Do We Gossip?
Krishnamurti
I wonder why we gossip? Is it because it reveals others to us? And why should others be revealed to us? Why do you want to know others? Why this extraordinary concern about others? First of all, why ...
On Meditation
Krishnamurti
"When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts he will see the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience. He will dis...
On Greed
Krishnamurti
"Take greed. Do you know what greed is? It is eating more food than you need, wanting to outshine others at games, wanting to have more property, a bigger car than someone else. The...
On Generosity
Krishnamurti
"We are going to talk about something which needs a mind that can penetrate very profoundly. We must begin very near because we cannot go very far if we do not know how to begin very close,...
Chaos Within, Chaos Without
Krishnamurti
Do not think by merely wishing for peace, you will have peace, when in your daily life of relationship you are aggressive, acquisitive, seeking psychological security here or in the hereaft...
Imitation
Krishnamurti
Another cause of dullness is imitation. You are made to imitate by tradition. The weight of the past drives you to conform, toe the line, and through conformity the mind feels safe, secure; it esta...
Branch Is Not The Tree
Krishnamurti
"In our search for knowledge, in our acquisitive desires, we are losing life, we are blunting the feeling for beauty, the sensitivity to cruelty; we are becoming more and more specialized and less ...
Distraction From What Is
Krishnamurti
Effort is distraction from what is. We must understand the problem of striving. If we can understand the significance of effort, then we can translate it into action in our daily life. Does not eff...
A Journey Together
Krishnamurti
If we could take a journey, make a pilgrimage together, without any intent or purpose, without seeking anything, perhaps on returning we might find that our hearts had unknowingly been changed. I thi...
True Education
Krishnamurti
It is always difficult to keep simple and clear. The world worships success, the bigger the better; the greater the audience the greater the speaker; the colossal super buildings, cars, aeroplanes an...
Self-Compassion Over Self-Esteem
Kristin Neff
The great angst of modern life is this: no matter how hard we try, no matter how successful we are, no matter how good a parent, worker, or spouse we are – it’s never enough. There is alwa...