Reading Archives (2017)
Where We Are Is Our Temple
Jack Kornfield
Expanding our spiritual practice is actually a process of expanding our heart, of widening our circle of insight and compassion to gradually include the whole of our life. Being on earth here in human...
The Gift Of Threshold Moments
Sam Keen
The thrush’s song belongs to a family of experiences that usher us into a threshold where sound trails off into silence, time disappears into timelessness, and the known world is engulfed by the...
What You Missed That Day You Were Absent From Fourth Grade
Brad Aaron Modlin
Mrs. Nelson explained how to stand still and listen to the wind, how to find meaning in pumping gas, how peeling potatoes can be a form of prayer. She took questions on how not to feel lost in th...
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...
The Messiah Is One Of Us
Megan McKenna
Once upon a time there was a wise abbot of a monastery who was the friend of an equally wise rabbi. This was in the old country, long ago, when times were always hard, but just then they were even wor...
Laziness As Our Personal Teacher
Pema Chodron
The path of awakening is a process. It’s a process of gradually learning to become intimate with our so-called obstacles. So rather than feeling discouraged by laziness, we could look into our l...
The Sun Is The Perfect Example
Vinoba Bhave
The sun is the perfect example of acting without desire. When the sun rises does the idea enter its mind to say, 'I shall banish the darkness, I shall urge the birds to fly, and I will set people ...
Space To Heal
Thuy Nguyen
Healing requires space. As we plow through day to day life, we dream about finding a time when there will be space to heal, rejuvenate and refuel. Some of us are holding off until the weekend, wh...
Welcoming Fear As A Friend
Gerald G. May
The basic lesson is this: Fear is not an enemy but a friend. Fear is something good, something alive, alert, and wild in us. Fear may be a response to danger, bur fear itself is not dangerous. On the ...
Seeing Is Not Thinking
Jeanne de Salzmann
The question is not what to do but how to see. Seeing is the most important thing—the act of seeing. I need to realize that it is truly an act, an action that brings something entirely new, a ne...
Planting Twin Trees
Robin Wall Kimmerer
There was a custom in the mid-eighteen hundreds of planting twin trees to celebrate a marriage and the starting of a home. The stance of these two, just ten feet apart, recalls a couple standing toget...
One Has No Self To Love
Alan Watts
Love that expresses itself in creative action is something much more than an emotion. It is not something which you can “feel” and “know,” remember and define. Love is the orga...
Habits Of The Heart
Parker Palmer
“Habits of the heart” (a phrase coined by Alexis de Tocqueville) are deeply ingrained ways of seeing, being, and responding to life that involve our minds, our emotions, our self-images, o...
Advice From A Tree
Ilan Shamir
Dear Friend, Stand Tall and Proud Sink your roots deeply into the Earth Reflect the light of a greater source Think long term Go out on a limb Remember your place among all living beings Embrac...
Beyond Content Of Thought
Ram Dass
Instead of trying so hard to get out of the shadow, the dark, which I think actually reinforces the shadow and its reality, just do your practices. See, if somebody says, “I’m having these...
Emptiness And Compassion Go Hand In Hand
Norman Fischer
The word “emptiness” is a fair translation of shunyata, but it has the drawback of sounding negative, even despairing. The Chinese, searching for a word that might translate shunyata...
Happy Birthday, Dear Sister
Parag Shah
Happy Birthday, Dear Sister. Welcome to the festival of this world. I pray in silence on this day, That you are bestowed with the gift of Nothingness! That Nothingness which is full of space, ...
Loving Your Enemy
Brother David Steindl-Rast
To love our enemies does not mean that we suddenly become their friends. If it is our enemies we are to love, they must remain enemies. Unless you have enemies, you cannot love them. And if you have n...
Heart And Soul Bonds
Michelle
Our lives are greeted by different types of relationships. Some fun, some cozy and intimate, some crazy and adventurous, some inseparable. Nevertheless, there are also other type of connections, which...
Each Thing's Way
Ray Grigg
Trouble is caused by people who think they are smart enough to improve things. First they try. When there is resistance, they push. Then they push harder until their intentions are lost in strugg...