Reading Archives (2019)
Meditation: A Process Of Retraining The Mind
Bhante Gunaratna
Gently, but firmly, without getting upset or judging yourself for straying, simply return to the simple physical sensation of the breath. Then do it again the next time, and again, and again, and agai...
The Anatomy Of Falling
Michael Singer
Leaving the seat of Self is not generally a willful act. The laws of attraction will cause it to happen. Consciousness is always drawn to the most distracting object: the bumped toe, the loud noise, o...
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...
Too Many Names
Pablo Neruda
Monday is tangled up with Tuesday and the week with the year: time can’t be cut with your tired scissors, and all the names of the day are rubbed out by the waters of the night. No one ca...
Do You Remember Your Song?
Alan Cohen
When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child. They recog...
How Can You Live In This World And Yet Be Innocent?
J. Krishnamurti
How can you live in this world and yet be innocent? First, be innocent and then you will live in this world, not the other way round. Be vulnerable, be tremendously vulnerable. You do not even unde...
Trapped By Views
Ajahn Pasanno
We recognize that whatever comes up is just a mental formation within the mind, just a thought or just a perception. We can have a perception about something and realize that it's impermanent, uns...
Staying Small To Stay Safe
Peggy Dulany
Somewhere along the line of human evolution, fears caused many of us (especially those who lost their link to the natural environment and came to live in crowded, stressful living conditions) to shrin...
When My Life Is In Danger
Christina Feldman
A few years ago, an elderly monk arrived in India after fleeing from prison in Tibet. Meeting with the Dalai Lama, he recounted the years he had been imprisoned, the hardship and beatings he had endur...
Life Is Full But Not Overcrowded
Peace Pilgrim
In my mid life, I began to realize that it's as though we have two selves or two natures or two wills with two different viewpoints. Because the viewpoints were so different, I felt a struggle in ...
What Is Wealth?
Ryan Holiday
What is wealth? It’s having plenty, right? The variables in the equation are pretty simple. What you have, what you’ve got coming in, and what’s going out. If those are in proper pro...
Monet Refuses The Operation
Lisel Mueller
Doctor, you say there are no haloes around the streetlights in Paris and what I see is an aberration caused by old age, an affliction. I tell you it has taken me ...
Zen Of Archery
James Clear
In the 1920s, a German professor named Eugen Herrigel moved to Japan and began training in the martial art of archery, with a legendary archer named Awa Kenzo. Kenzo was convinced that beginners shoul...
My Neighbor's Corn
Naren Kini
There was once a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he gre...
When Light Shines, Darkness Becomes The Light
Thich Nhat Hanh
From time to time you may become restless, and the restlessness will not go away. At such times, just sit quietly, follow your breathing, smile a half-smile, and shine your awareness on the restlessne...
Song Of The Birds
David G. Haskell
For millennia, the language of birds has called us to cross divides. In the Qur’an, Solomon received a bounty and blessing when he was given the language of birds. Job exhorts us to hear the wis...
Hard Times Require Furious Dancing
Alice Walker
I am the youngest of eight siblings. Five of us have died. I share losses, health concerns, and other challenges common to the human condition, especially in these times of war, poverty, environmental...
Universal Humans In Training
Gary Zukav
We are in the midst of an unprecedented transformation in human consciousness. Unprecedented. Our perception is expanding beyond the limitations of the five senses. Together, they form a single system...
Abandon Only What Is Not Yours
Shaila Catherine
The wise understand the importance of letting go -- even letting go of the things we strive for and attain. Meditative training is more about letting go than it is about attaining levels of absorption...
Does God Have A Form?
Arthur Osborne
"Has God a form?" a man once challenged Ramana Maharshi, the great Indian sage. "Who says God has a form?" Ramana retorted. The questioner persisted, "If God is formless is...