What is Meditation?
Vimala Thakar
"This awareness of the so called outward and the inward movements of life, is meditation. The simultaneous awareness of the total movement is meditation. If I am aware of the nature of my reactio...
Trees are Sanctuaries
Herman Hesse
Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscri...
Right Away is the Opposite of Now
Jacob Needleman
Some years ago, I was walking downtown San Francisco with a great friend and a learned Tibetan scholar. I asked him about one of the most striking ways that the Tibetans express the uniqueness of the ...
Simplicity of the Heart
J. Krishnamurti
Simplicity of the heart is of far greater importance and significance than simplicity of possessions. To be&nb...
Taking a Stand
Lynne Twist
Over two thousand years ago, the mathematician Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and I’ll move the world.” Taking a stand is a way of living and being that draws on a place ...
Accessing Desire As Loving Motivation
Miki Kashtan
When Yannai, my sister Inbal’s son, was three and a half, his grandparents were visiting and were staying in the downstairs room. At about 8am the next morning Yannai started banging a pole on t...
My Work is Loving the World
Mary Oliver
My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird - equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the clam deep in the speckled sand...
Reflections on Life from Death Row
Moyo
Reggie once told me that we could use these cells like meditation cells used by monks in monasteries. But prison is not a monastery. And although I may do my best to take advantage of the opportuni...
Stepping into the Present Is a Gift
Carolyn Hobbs
Most of us have heard of ego and let ego run our lives without realizing it. But few of us know how deeply our ego—the small, less mature, defensive part of us that reacts personally to every li...
Blessings for Earth-Healers
Starhawk
We give thanks for all those who are moved, in their lives, to heal and protect the earth, in small ways and in large. Blessings on the composter, the gardeners, the breeders of worms and mushrooms, t...
With Fullness in Life, Everything is Possible
Facundo Cabral
You are not depressed; you are distracted. You believe that you have lost something, which is impossible, because everything that you have was given to you. You did not make a single hair of your head...
The Power Paradox
Dacher Keltner
Life is made up of patterns. And one pattern kept appearing in scientific studies I've conducted over the past twenty years. It's called the power paradox: we rise in power and make a dif...