Paradox of Noise
Gunilla Norris
It is a paradox that we encounter so much internal noise when we first try to sit in silence. It is a paradox that experiencing pain releases pain. It is a paradox that keeping still can le...
New Atoms Doing the Same Dance
Richard Feynman
I stand at the seashore, alone, and start to think. There are the rushing waves ... mountains of molecules, each stupidly minding its own business ... trillions apart ... yet forming white surf...
Full Effort is Full Victory
Eknath Easwaran
Gandhi wanted so deeply to help the world that he dedicated his life to siphoning every trace of self-interest out of his heart and mind, leaving them pure, radiantly healthy, and free to love. It too...
The Test for Meditation in Action
Shinzen Young
When we first come into this life we form a self in order to cope with the world. The baby has a rather scant self and commensurately little ability to deal with the world. We develop a self to deal w...
Giving Within For-Give-Ness
Michael Bernard Beckwith
People often say that Jesus taught, "You should turn the cheek if someone smites you; you should turn the other cheek if they wrong you." Many people interpret this as saying that if s...
Before You Know What Kindness Really Is
Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved,...
A 9-Year-Old's Hidden Self
Jacob Needleman
The quality and strength of Lobsang's inner being was also brought home to me through an event that took place in my home. After one of his weekends working with our translation group, he stayed...
Cultivation of that Dormant Love
Radhanath Swami
Mother Nature is always speaking. She speaks in a language understood within the peaceful mind of the sincere observer. Leopards, cobras, monkeys, rivers and trees; they all served as my teachers when...
Storyteller Consciousness
Charles Eisenstein
For words to truly be powerful, we must align them with our creative intention. Only then can we create the stories of our lives. Unconscious lying sabotages our credibility to ourselves and others...
A Deep, Uncritical Love
Bhante Gunaratana
You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes will flow naturally. You don't have to force anything...
Practically Preposterous
Pavithra Mehta
"Well, I was just inventing a new way of getting over a gate -- would you like to hear it?" "Very much indeed," Alice said politely. "I'll tell you how I...
Freedom Manifests in Action
Rabindranath Tagore
The more man acts and makes actual what was latent in him, the nearer does he bring the distant Yet-to-be. In that actualisation, man is ever making himself more and yet more distinct, and s...