Reading Archives (Author)
Too Many Names
Monday is tangled up with Tuesday and the week with the year: time can’t be cut with your tired scissors, and all the names of...
Keeping Quiet
Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still for once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any language;...
Sunrise in Laos
I am a mountain girl, and my first love in Asia are the monasteries tucked between the snow-covered razor ridges of the high Himalayas....
All We Can Do Is Share Ourselves
So many of us believe that we have to do something. We have to take action in order to make a difference in the world. We must have a...
Pilgrim In The Open Shore
Today the clouds and ocean are indistinguishable the horizon vanished with the incessant rhythm this breathing feels synchronized...
Love Your Path
1. The path begins at a crossroads. There you can stop and think what direction you want to take. But don’t spend too much time...
Happy Birthday, Dear Sister
Happy Birthday, Dear Sister. Welcome to the festival of this world. I pray in silence on this day, That you are bestowed with the...
True and Native State of Being
Simplicity is not grinding poverty: It is not the polar opposite of wealth. To live simply is to pursue a quiet path of moderation. In...
Stand In the Tragic Gap
The bad news is that violence is found at every level of our lives. The good news is that we can choose nonviolence at every level as...
A Life On The Ground
Question: ... the idea of having “a life on the ground”. Can you expand on what that means to you? That brings back a...
Habits Of The Heart
“Habits of the heart” (a phrase coined by Alexis de Tocqueville) are deeply ingrained ways of seeing, being, and responding...
Organic Gift
Years ago, I heard Dorothy Day speak. Founder of the Catholic Worker movement, her long-term commitment to living among the poor on New...
My Misgivings About Advice
My misgivings about advice began with my first experience of clinical depression thirty-five years ago. The people who tried to...
The Practice Of Soft Eyes
In a sacred landscape, with its complexities and convolutions, surprise is a constant companion: it lies just around the bend or hidden...
That Friend Walking Behind Me
Imagine that for many years a friend had been walking a block behind me, calling my name, trying to get my attention because he wanted to...
Two Types Of Heartbreaks
A disciple asks the rebbe: “Why does Torah tell us to ‘place these words upon your hearts’? Why does it not tell us...
A Circle of Trust
Like a wild animal, the soul is tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, and self-sufficient: it knows how to survive in hard places. I...
Substituting Presence for Preparation
Give up planning. Clear your mind instead of filling it. Don't spend your energy on preparing for the future. Redirect it to the...
Cultivating Affirmation
This is going to sound crazy. Say yes to everything. Accept all offers. Go along with the plan. Support someone else's dream. Say "yes";...
Knowing When to Improvise
A successful life involves both planning and improvising. Sometimes we actually do need a script. Those scripts that are working well for...
Visionmaking Should be a Daily Activity
One of the most important responsibilities of every leader is to envision the future. Visionmaking should be a...
Inner World of Moods
“Give me a place to stand on," said the Greek mathematician Archimedes, “and I can move the world.” He was...
Making a New Start
Making a new start isn’t starting ‘again.’ There’s no ‘again’ about it. New is new. But by now...
Is It Really Worth It?
It’s been difficult to accept that I’m often a battleground for several sides of myself, which seem to act in opposition to...
Mighty in Contradiction: Love Powerfully
As we see more deeply into our inner drives and defenses, we discover that the choices we are faced with aren’t all black and...
I Am Nothing
What will you do if you're too tough to be a good woman, too sensitive to be a good man, too selfish to be a good husband, too lazy to be...
Love without Conditions
You will find all kinds of methods to teach you “how to be”. But, as long as there is a method, you will be...
Wonder of the Universe is Wondering In Us
The universe is very big and very old. It was only discovered by us in the twentieth century. When you look up at the night stars you...
The Endurance to Observe
There is little I have heard from others -- and it is my daily business to listen -- that I have not seen in myself as I sit. But I also...
Death is Life's Door
(Note from the Editors: 'Sitting' here refers to seated meditation) Sitting enabled me to see, and compelled me to...
Sense Of Self Is An Essential Skill Of Mind
Many articles in the Western press have confused the Buddha’s idea of “anatta,” the absence of an eternal soul, with...
I Am Interested In My Mind
I am interested in my mind, and in my body. Previous to my having cultivated the habit of sitting, I had thought about myself and had...
Why I Sit
This morning, the first thing I did was to sit for an hour. I have done that regularly for twenty years, and have spent many evenings,...
Equanimity: An Invisible Inheritance
Gratitude isn’t merely an extra, an outflow of meditation. The deep peace of meditation gushes up from the realization that an infinite...
A Paradoxical Struggle
The life of peace is like an international flight permitting only one handbag. You'll have to leave behind some of your cherished shoes...
The Listening Mind
Reckoning, judging, evaluating, leaping in, taking it personally, being bored -- the helping act has many number of invitations to...
Service
Separateness and unity. How interesting that these root causes, revealed in the expereience of helping, turn out to be what most...
When Science Is The Arbiter Of Metaphysics
Although I had been raised in a devout Christian family, where prayer and Scripture readings were a nightly ritual, I, like most...
Letting The Hero Die
Leonard Cohen said his teacher once told him that, the older you get, the lonelier you become, and the deeper the love you need. This is...
If You Really Pay Attention
When I was a little bitty kiddy, about five, my Dad began a process … anytime somebody came and said something to us, my dad would...
Two Drops Of Oil
A merchant sent his son to learn the Secret of Happiness from the wisest of men. The young man wandered through the desert for forty days...
Courage to Try the Impossible
"You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you'll never have to fear an...
The Revolutionary Educator
Narration, with the teacher as narrator, leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account. Worse yet, it turns them...
A Strange Predicament
When I stop to consider the facts they astonish me. There you are, couched in your own skin, and Here I am in mine. No matter how close...
Practically Preposterous
"Well, I was just inventing a new way of getting over a gate -- would you like to hear it?" "Very much...
A Portrait in Patience
Patience they said was a virtue. Only I wasn't ever quite sure why. I always saw her as a rather plain-faced girl with a sweet smile....
Live Like The Roar In A Lion's Throat
Do you live in your days like a forgotten ticket stub in someone's jacket? As if the show were behind you? As if you went out one...
Beatitudes
Blessed are they who give without expecting even thanks in return, for they shall be abundantly rewarded. Blessed are they who...
Living to Give
In my early life I made two very important discoveries. In the first place I discovered that making money was easy. And in the second...
Freedom of Simplicity
Some seem to think my life dedicated to simplicity and service is austere and joyless, but these do not know the freedom of simplicity....
Four Purifications
Then I discovered that there were some purifications required of me. The first one is such a simple thing: it is purification of the...
The Four Relinquishments
Once you've made the first relinquishment, you have found inner peace because it's the relinquishment of self-will. You can work on this...
From Peace: 12 Reflections On The Path
There is no glimpse of the light without walking the path. You can't get it from anyone else, nor can you give it to anyone. Just...
Life Is Full But Not Overcrowded
In my mid life, I began to realize that it's as though we have two selves or two natures or two wills with two different viewpoints....
Staying Small To Stay Safe
Somewhere along the line of human evolution, fears caused many of us (especially those who lost their link to the natural environment and...
Laziness As Our Personal Teacher
The path of awakening is a process. It’s a process of gradually learning to become intimate with our so-called obstacles. So rather...
You Can't Get There From Here
When you sit down to meditate, you can bring to your practice the notion of the threefold purity: not being caught up with ideas about...
To Be Continually Thrown Out Of The Nest
We think that if we just meditated enough or jogged enough or ate perfect food, everything would be perfect. But from the point of view...
When Things Fall Apart
I used to have a sign pinned up on my wall that read: “Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation...
The Trick is to Keep Seeing
(The Tibetan word shenpa) is usually translated “attachment,” but a more descriptive translation might be...
Start Where You Are
We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves--the heavy-duty...
The Shenpa Syndrome
Someone criticizes you. They criticize your work or your appearance or your child. At moments like that, what is it you feel? It has a...
Cool Loneliness
As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve...
Learning to Stay
In meditation we discover our inherent restlessness. Sometimes we get up and leave. Sometimes we sit there but our bodies wiggle and...
Reaching Underneath Our Protective Shell
There's a slogan in the Mahayana teachings that says, "Drive all blames onto oneself." The essence of this slogan is,...
We Are Swimming in Miracles
Chicago. I remember in high school, I went for a walk. I was going to a friend's house and I was walking past all these houses; it...
The Simplest Meditation: Waiting
For most of us waiting is not easy, often a bore. Waiting for a bus or train, we look for something to do to pass the time. Sitting in a...
Not Resisting Resistance
The building where I used to run a meditation group was on the same street as a fire station; one could almost guarantee that sometime...
Learning to 'Presence'
When any of us acts in a state of fear or anxiety, our actions are likely to revert to what is most habitual: our most instinctual...
Appreciating the Symphony of Experience
In the movie 'The Truman Show', actor Jim Carey plays a man whose entire life is a television show, broadcast to millions, unknown to...
What the Vision Does
If your deeper intention is an inseparable part of how you are, it is not capable of attachment. You can seek to accomplish your...
Nowness Connects Everything
[Meditation] is what I do to start every day. It's a discipline and a setting of priorities. I'm not going to allow my mind to create...
Zen Alarm Clock
Much as you want to roll over and go back to sleep, we have to start the day sometime. Whatever serves to stir us from our slumber --...
Imagination Is Not Day-Dreaming
Imagination is a superpower. Every single change in society started in somebody’s imagination — or in a small group’s...
Letter to A Friend in A Hurry
You are at a crossroads, sensing there are less worldly paths you can follow, paths that feed on profound inner peace, a more...
The Gentle Art of Blessing
On awakening, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessings will call forth, for to bless is to acknowledge...
Integrity Is A Quality Of Being
Integrity is a quality of being. It means holding on at all times to your highest sense of truth and your own vision, whatever the cost...
We Are Contextual Beings
Here is one of my central inquiries: If our spiritual and religious practices are not expanding our circle of empathy, compassion, love...
An Inborn Sense of Meaningfulness
As ordinary consciousness is gradually freed from the perspectives of everyday existence – thoughts, ideas, circumstances,...
Greatest Of All Religions
Hazrat Inayat Khan said, "A study of life is the greatest of all religions, and there is no greater or more interesting study."...
There Is Faith In Humor
Life inevitably has its sadnesses, which are part of every path of hope and every path toward conversion. But it is important to avoid...
Autobiography in Five Chapters
1) I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost ... I am hopeless. It isn't my fault. It takes...
Something Worked
The next time you see a tree, observe and take note of this, if you can. That tree represents so much that was right. So much that is...
Waiting To Be Found
Before a war begins outside, it starts inside. The war on the inside is more dangerous because it is a fire that may never be put out....
A Recipe Is A Story
In English, to “cook something up” means to prepare food, but also to invent stories or schemes, to concoct something out of...