Reading Archive (Courage)
How Is Your Heart Doing?
In many Muslim cultures, when you want to ask them how they’re doing, you ask: in Arabic, Kayf haal-ik? or, in Persian, Haal-e...
Seven Stages Of The Ego
The first stage is the Depraved Ego (Nafs), the most primitive and common state of being, when the soul is entrapped in worldly pursuits....
Taking a Stand
Over two thousand years ago, the mathematician Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and I’ll move the world.”...
Sincerely Enthusiastic
I wanted to laugh more, I wanted to show more loving-kindness, and I also wanted to be more enthusiastic. I knew that it wasn't nice...
Habits Of The Heart
“Habits of the heart” (a phrase coined by Alexis de Tocqueville) are deeply ingrained ways of seeing, being, and responding...
Exhausting Quest For Perfection
The quest for perfection is exhausting and unrelenting, but as hard as we try, we can't turn off the tapes that fill our heads with...
Communication As Mutual Entrainment
Every act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility...
The Work Of Love Is To Love
My own time on earth has led me to believe in two powerful instruments that turn experience into love: holding and listening. For every...
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...
Choosing Suffering over Safety
“Can you walk, sweetheart?” I say these words to our dog Stella who is dying. It’s time for breakfast and if she walks...
Big Enough to Take It All In
To want to see clearly is a true act of fearlessness. To open our heart and mind, to be open to what life is offering us in this moment,...
When My Life Is In Danger
A few years ago, an elderly monk arrived in India after fleeing from prison in Tibet. Meeting with the Dalai Lama, he recounted the years...
My Word Of The Year
My word of the year is listen. It’s one of those words whose meaning is in its music. Listen is a quiet word, that half...
How Observation Changes Relationships
When we sit in silence what do we do? We sit and observe the voluntary and involuntary activities of the body and mind. Slowly the...
Giving Up is Different From Letting Someone Down
This inner gesture of letting go from moment to moment is what is so terribly difficult for us; and it can be applied to almost any area...