Reading Archive (Hope)
Unattainable Goal of Peace
[Nobel Lecture, June 16, 2012] The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces are getting the better of positive...
We Were Made for These Times
My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered....
You Were Made For This
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our...
The Oppressor and the Oppressed Must Both be Liberated
I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the...
Mercy
She asks me to kill the spider. Instead, I get the most peaceful weapons I can find. I take a cup and a napkin. I catch the spider,...
Hard Times Require Furious Dancing
I am the youngest of eight siblings. Five of us have died. I share losses, health concerns, and other challenges common to the human...
Serenity Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is...
Blessing For The Longest Night
All throughout these months as the shadows have lengthened, this blessing has been gathering itself, making ready, preparing for...
Who Do We Choose To Be?
The powerful always defend the status quo because it is the source of their power and privilege. Any change that benefits others would...
This I Believe
I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in...
Honor the Seed
Honor the seed. The words seem so simple. This is knowledge that was passed down to me from my father. Yet, today, those simple words...
Can Beauty Save the World?
Dostoyevsky once let drop the enigmatic phrase: “Beauty will save the world.” What does this mean? For a long time it used to...
The Messiah Is One Of Us
Once upon a time there was a wise abbot of a monastery who was the friend of an equally wise rabbi. This was in the old country, long...
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...
Meaning of Success
To earn the respect of intelligent people and to win the affection of children; To appreciate the beauty in nature and all that...
Where's Your Umbrella?
The rains failed again that year. It was the third year in succession when there was no rain. The crops had disappeared and the land was...
The Three Narratives
When we come together for this work, at the outset we discern three stories or versions of reality that are shaping our world so that we...
The Highest Spiritual Path
The highest spiritual path is life itself. If you know how to live daily life, it all becomes a liberating experience. But first you have...
A Marvelous Victory
There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment we will continue to see. We forget how often in this century we have...
We Shall Overcome
I refuse to accept the idea that the "is-ness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal...