Reading Archives (Author)
Limitation Becomes Space
Allowing this moment to be as it is, just this moment, no more. Just this moment. Suddenly there’s an inner space around it...
Noticing the Gaps
In the first moment of seeing something or hearing a sound -- and more so if it is unfamiliar -- before the mind names or interprets what...
An Ego Strategy to Avoid Surrender
What is conventionally called “love” is an ego strategy to avoid surrender. You are looking to someone to give you that which...
The Place That is Free of Suffering
The world promises fulfillment somewhere in time, and there is a continuous striving toward that fulfillment in time. Many times people...
Not Minding What Happens
J. Krishnamurti, the great Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher, spoke and traveled almost continuously all over the world for more...
Stillness Speaks
Silence is helpful, but you don't need it in order to find stillness. Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness...
Relationships Make You Conscious, Not Happy
With the acknowledgment and acceptance of the facts also comes a degree of freedom from them. For example, when you know there is...
The Basic Delusion
The human mind, in its desire to know, understand, and control, mistakes its opinions and viewpoints for the truth. It says: this is how...
World of Objects
What is your relationship with the world of objects, the countless things that surround you and that you handle everyday? The chair you...
Anything Natural
Whenever you bring your attention to anything natural, anything that has come into existence without human intervention, you step out of...
Stillness Speaks
The mind exists in a state of "not enough" and so is always greedy for more. When you are identified with mind, you get bored and...
A Habitual Waiter
Are you a habitual "waiter"? How much of your life do you spend waiting? What I call "small-scale waiting" is waiting in line at the...
Spare Some Change?
A beggar had been sitting by the side of the road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. "Spare some change?" mumbled the...
The Off Button
Thinking has become a disease. Disease happens when things get out of balance. For example, there is nothing wrong with cells dividing...
Problem In The Now?
All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. You may find it hard to recognize that...
Only One of Them Is Real
One night long after my twenty-ninth birthday, I woke up in the early hours with a feeling of absolute dread. I had woken up with such...
Perception Is A Mirror
You respond to what you perceive, and as you perceive so shall you behave. Every response you make to everything you perceive...
Live Intentionally, In Freedom
Modern psychology commonly asserts that we cannot enter the unconscious fully aware. The mystic responds, "Oh, yes, you can! I have...
Becoming Master Artists
We do not have to accept ourselves as we are. Genetic code or brain bio-chemistry, astrological configurations or Tarot readings, early...
Reengineeing Our Patterns
When I recommend to someone that they slow down, they often raise a legitimate question: “There is so much that I have to do; how...
The Same Self Is in All of Us
The same spark of divinity–this same Self–is enshrined in every creature. My real Self is not different from yours nor anyone...
Full Effort is Full Victory
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,...
Tree Of Life
We are all familiar with the unflattering expression, "He can't see the forest for the trees". Similarly, it can be said that most of...
Elephant in the Rock
In ancient India lived a sculptor renowned for his life-sized statues of elephants. With trunks curled high, tusks thrust forward, thick...
Dinner in Silence
[ Five or six weeks ago, we started to eat the post-meditation dinner in silence. Here is a related thought on mindful eating ... ]...
Our Teachers in Nature
Looking at living systems over time, I came to understand that they all go through a cycle that's very like our psychological maturation...
Looking Over My Life
My excitement at life grows ever stronger; my health as I round the bend to my sixtieth birthday has never been better. I thank all my...
The Hardest Lesson
The sole purpose of life is to grow. The ultimate lesson is learning how to love and be loved unconditionally. There are millions of...
When You Don't Choose Love You Choose Fear
If we could literally reach into you and remove all your fears – every one of them – how different would your life be? Think...
Do A Nice Thing For Your Future Self
I grew up on a small family farm, with plants and animals needing care in every direction, so vacations were rare. But one summer my...
Creative Living
This, I believe, is the central question upon which all creative living hinges: Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that...
Agent Of Illumination
Some years ago, I was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. Traffic was barely moving. The bus was filled with...
Death: the Key to the Door of Life
There is no need to be afraid of death. It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live...
Don't Go Back to Sleep
To be human is to be lost in the woods. None of us arrives here with clear directions on how to get from point A to point B without...
There Are Many Voices Beside Ours
We [Native Americans] know about silence. We are not afraid of it. In fact, for us, silence is more powerful than words. Our elders were...
Don't Waste A Curse On The Universe
Don't look for the flaws as you go through life; And even when you find them, It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind...
What You Are Is Perfect Imperfection
Your less evolved areas have a right to be. They whisper of things past. They whisper of confusion, of unfulfillment and of the...
A Search for Hidden Opportunity
When considering the future, remember that all situations unfold as they do regardless of how we feel about them. Our hopes and fears...
Effects of Adversity
Adversity may help people distinguish between events they can really control by changing their environment versus uncontrollable events....
The False Self From Childhood
I ran across a developmental psychology theory not long ago that I’ve had bouncing around in the back of my head ever since. It...
In Search of the Treasure
A parable. An old farmer, on his deathbed, tells his sons that there is treasure buried in the fields. After he dies, his sons dig and...
Questioning Our Questions
"If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper...
Recognizing the Real Fear
In the sphere of human relations, faith is an indispensable quality of any significant friendship or love. “Having faith” in...
Keeping Nothing Between
In a restaurant a little girl in the next booth turns to look at you. It is an open look, direct from her – to you. She...
One February Morning in Vietnam
It was another morning in Chu Lai, Vietnam -- a large and ugly army base where I was. One February morning, as I avoided the mud...
Real Security is a Process
Why are we suddenly a nation and a people who strive for security above all else? In fact, security is essentially elusive, impossible....
Becoming Free of Our Substitute Life
A Zen student walked in to see the master. Sitting down, he blurted out, "There's something terribly wrong with me!" The...
Finding the Deepest Joy in Relationships
One very helpful tool in both clarifying and working with our relationship difficulties is to return to the three questions: Am I truly...