Reading Archives (2022)
Be Vigilance
Gangaji
Vigilance is often misunderstood. Usually what passes for vigilance is careful monitoring by the superego. I'm sure you're very aware of this kind of monitoring-- "Oh I shouldn't have...
Gamble On Humanity
Ayisha Siddiqa
What if the future is soft and revolution is so kind that there is no end to us in sight. Whole cities breathe and bad luck is bested by a promise to the leaves. To withstand your own end is dif...
How Much Silence Is Too Much?
Gal Beckerman
Ours is a noisy country. We’ve been rebellious, insolent shouters since the beginning. We invent freak shows and circuses and casinos. Talk too loud. Our public spaces honk and whistle at us. We...
How We Wrestle Is Who We Are
Brian Doyle
I remember pacing hospital and house and hills, and thinking that his operations would either work or not and he would either live or die. There was a certain clarity there; I used to crawl into that ...
Appearance As A Gift
Isira
Our whole experience of life is a relationship. Every single moment is centered in the way we relate to what is happening. To understand this more deeply it helps us to recognize core issues that m...
Good Bones, Pushing Water
Carrie Newcomer
We had a small water crisis at our home this week. The break happened within a wall, and so we didn’t realize at first that a pipe had begun to leak until morning when my husband noticed w...
Small Kindnesses
Danusha Laméris
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a lefto...
Two Stonemasons
Simon Senek
Consider the story of two stonemasons. you walk up to the first stonemason and ask, ‘Do you like your job?’ He looks up at you and replies, ‘I’ve been building this wall for as...
Hopium
Margaret Wheatley
The problem with hope is that it’s bipolar. Every time we rely on hope, we always bring in fear. Wisdom teaches that hope and fear are two sides of the same dynamic. You already know ...
Meeting Our Own Mortality
Navin Amarasuriya
Stories have helped us make meaning of the world, from ancient times when our ancestors whispered around campfires. Inner mental models that explained the outside world shaped our perceptions, and for...
A Flower's Job Is To Bloom
Srikumar Rao
A powerful moment in My Fair Lady is when Henry Higgins's mother commiserates with a sobbing Eliza Dolittle. Eliza is distraught because Higgins did not congratulate her after an exemplary perform...
Paying Attention
Amishi P. Jha
Attention is thought to have evolved to solve one of the brain’s biggest challenges: There is far more information in our environment than the brain can fully process. Without a way to filter, t...
Mental Immunity
Dalai Lama
Everyone knows that physical pain is bad and tries to avoid it. We do this not only by curing diseases, but also by trying to prevent them and by trying to keep our physical immunity strong. Mental pa...
Why I Stopped Fighting
Indigo Ocean
When I was a teenage girl, I had a fight with an older boy who had at least fifty pounds on me. It was a pre-announced fight, so many other students had gathered around to watch. I recall having the u...
Reality Of Actual Contact With Oneself
Judith Blackstone
The reality of actual contact with oneself is, at the same time, actual contact with our environment. It is a very interesting aspect of our nature that to heal the split between body and mi...
On Love
Justin Faerman
I see so many people talking about the world's problems but so few talking about the solution to them: Love. It really is that simple despite how complicated we often try to make it. Pretty ...
Slavery To The Senses
Swami Vivekananda
We are all slaves to our senses, slaves to our own minds, conscious and subconscious. The reason why a criminal is a criminal is not because he desires to be one, but because he has not his mind under...
Wonder Increases As Speed Decreases
David Haskell
Indulge me for a moment: let’s do a short thought experiment. We’ll compare two different mornings. On one, you’ll fly coast-to-coast, a five hour journey. Imagine yourself in the hi...
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...
Fishing Before You Know How To Fish
Courtney Martin
Through the pines and the one maple I hear her. I shouldn’t have gone fishing if I didn’t know how to fish. I shouldn’t have gone fishing if I didn’t know how to fish. ...