Reading Archives (2024)
Embracing Deep Transitions With Wisdom
Vanessa Andreotti
As we stand at the precipice of endings—of species, ecosystems, organizations, and systems themselves—the work of hospicing is to move beyond fear and embrace the deep transitions ahead wi...
The Best Day Of My Life
Douglas Harding
The best day of my life—my rebirthday, so to speak—was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seri...
We Can See Only What We Can Think
Michael Lipson
Fortunately or not, everything we do is led by our thinking. There's just no way around it. Even if I say, "I'm going to stop thinking and let feeling be my guide" -- that's...
Gymnastics Of Attention
Menka Sanghvi
I once tried an improv class to see if that would finally help calm my stage nerves. It didn't. But I did learn something amazing. If an actor is trying to show the audience that they love some...
Between Knowing And Not Knowing
Ruth Ozeki and Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein: I sometimes play with the idea — and recognizing that I know nothing in these areas — that a lot of what is being described here is simply unreliableness. And that sounds negat...
A New Energy Grid
Jonathan Harris
In a ceremony a couple years ago, I received a powerful teaching. I was invited to think of some things for which I felt grateful. Various people, items, and situations quickly came to mind. I was inv...
Why Do We Send Flowers?
Alisha Gorder
Why do we send flowers? To make up for what is intangible? Those feelings we can’t hold in our hands and present as a gift to our loved ones? And why is it that the placeholders we choose &mdash...
Live As You Like But Renounce Internally
Siddharameshwar Maharaj
Reality is without attributes: it is not color, it is not music, it is not yellow or black, etc. What you see is only the qualified consciousness just as you see that bangles or armlets are both made ...
Liberation
Salvador Poe
If I had to define liberation, I’d say, “It’s the reconciliation that, what is, is.” In that, there is no one here to argue. (Read that again.) Liberation is not a new ...
Love Is The Highest Form Of Acceptance
Stephen Levine
Love is the highest form of acceptance. Judgment is the mechanics of non-acceptance. Some may say that without “good judgment” there would be no “discriminating wisdom” but dis...
It's Okay To Be Perfectly Human
Brian J. Plachta
Why do we do it? Why do we nag and criticize ourselves? Why do we launch scud missiles of negative words and thoughts against our self-images? Perfectionism is one reason. We expect ourselves to be...
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...
Addiction
Jac O'Keeffe
It seems that a believed thought (most often unconscious) underpinning addictions goes like this: ‘something outside of me can make me feel complete/happy or whole’. Experiencing extern...
Inhabiting The Body
Judith Blackstone
To live within the body is to be in contact with the internal space of the body. To inhabit our hands, for example, means that we are in contact with the whole internal space of our hands. To be in co...
What Is Mu?
Robert G. Harwood
“What is mu?” By contemplating such zen koans, students sometimes have deep existential insights, and it was this question that I now asked myself. In the past, I had no idea what an appro...
I No Longer Pray
Chelan Harkin
I no longer pray— now I drink dark chocolate and let the moon sing to me. I no longer pray— I let my ancestors dance through my hips at the slightest provocation....
Our Early Experiences
Dr. Gabor Maté
My mother had muscular dystrophy, which is a degenerative disease of the muscles. It’s hereditary, runs in our family. And so, she could no longer walk, get out of bed, even feed herself very we...
Yodeling Above Freedom
David Bullon
There is a thrushing light alive - dancing and whirling; concealed by midlife shadows in my antsy eyes. My snow-shining mountainous essence beams luminously through that shade, but somehow its rest...
We Are Contextual Beings
Pir Aga Mir
Here is one of my central inquiries: If our spiritual and religious practices are not expanding our circle of empathy, compassion, love and care, what is their purpose? If they are not preparing us fo...
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...