When was the last time you felt this way? Have you ever felt this way? What would it take for you to create this moment for yourself? What obstacles would you run into? What words would get in your way? What thoughts or memories would you get lost in? What…
“Forget about enlightenment. Sit down wherever you are and listen to the wind singing in your veins.” John Welwood When starting out, I wanted so badly to become a poet that I held it in view like some hill I needed to climb to see from. But getting to the…
Asleep too long, we need to wake. Awake too long, we need to sleep. We blink a thousand times a day. A thousand times a day the world goes dark. A thousand times a day we wake. We can’t escape this opening and closing. It’s a reflex we can’t control.…
“God leads me to still waters that restore my spirit.” Psalm 23 It doesn’t take very long for each of us to accumulate an emotional history. A child burns her hand on a stove and a fear of fire begins; in a tender moment, a hand is slapped and a…
“Enlightenment is like the moon reflected in a dewdrop on a blade of grass. The moon does not get wet, nor is the drop of water broken. And the whole moon and entire sky are reflected in even one drop of water.” Dogen The mystery – in love, in work,…
Just as the warmth of summer can make a cricket sing, the quality of being held enlivens the heart. We have been battered by modern times into obsessive problem solvers, but as life pares us down into only what is essential, it becomes clear that the deepest sufferings of heart…
“We need to stay current with each other.” Angeles Arrien It has taken a lifetime to understand how easily I can secretly wish for things to change, and in my secrecy prevent true change from happening. For example, I loved a friend for many years who was unable to listen…
The shore thirsts, but does not own the ocean that keeps it soft. So, too, the heart and all it loves. In the ancient Indian language Pali, the word ahamkara means “I-ing” having or making the feeling of “I.” The word mamamkara means “My-ing,” having or making the feeling of…
“The mind composed of ignorance or wrong view suffers from spiritual disease; it sees falsely. Seeing falsely causes it to think falsely, speak falsely and act falsely. You will see immediately that everyone, without exception, has the spiritual disease.” Ajahn Buddhadasa In Pali, the ancient source language of Buddhism and…
“Discernment is a process of letting of what we are not.” Father Thomas Keating I can easily over-identify with my emotions and roles, becoming what I feel: I am angry, I am divorced, I am depressed, I am a failure, I am nothing but my confusion and my sadness. No…
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