Reading Archive (Freedom in Life)
The Committee of the Mind
Thanissaro Bhikku
There are many different ideas of “you” in your mind, each with its own agenda. Each of these “you's” is a member of the committee of the mind. This is why the mind is less...
Everything Is Waiting For You
David Whyte
Your great mistake is to act the drama as if you were alone. As if life were a progressive and cunning crime with no witness to the tiny hidden transgressions. To feel aban...
The Oppressor and the Oppressed Must Both be Liberated
Nelson Mandela
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 color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must...
Everything Human Is Natural
Alan Watts
Man is as much attached to nature as a tree, and though he walks freely on two legs and is not rooted in the soil, he is by no means a self-sufficient, self-moving, and self-directing entity. For his ...
The Same Self Is in All of Us
Eknath Easwaran
The same spark of divinity–this same Self–is enshrined in every creature. My real Self is not different from yours nor anyone else’s. If we want to live in the joy that increases wit...
A Key To End Sorrow
J. Krishnamurti
The demand to be safe in a relationship inevitably breeds sorrow and fear. The seeking for security invites insecurity. Have you ever found security in any of your relationships? Have you? Most of us ...
I Have No Need For An Enemy
Troy Chapman
In passing my sentence, the judge said, “There’s no hope that you can ever be rehabilitated.” My sentence of 60-90 years was a tragic and too predictable end of the road I’d be...
Three Qualities Of Holiness
Anthony De Mello
True happiness is uncaused. You are happy for no reason at all. And true happiness cannot be experienced. It is not within the realm of consciousness. So it is with holiness. Holiness i...
Seeing Is Not Thinking
Jeanne de Salzmann
The question is not what to do but how to see. Seeing is the most important thing—the act of seeing. I need to realize that it is truly an act, an action that brings something entirely new, a ne...
What is Meditation?
Vimala Thakar
"This awareness of the so called outward and the inward movements of life, is meditation. The simultaneous awareness of the total movement is meditation. If I am aware of the nature of my reactio...
Stepping into the Present Is a Gift
Carolyn Hobbs
Most of us have heard of ego and let ego run our lives without realizing it. But few of us know how deeply our ego—the small, less mature, defensive part of us that reacts personally to every li...
Feel Free To Set A Better Example
Ryan Holiday
At the core of legal theory is this idea that there are essentially two forms of liberty—positive and negative. Positive liberty is the freedom to do something, such as the freedom of speech or ...
Inclining Toward Freedom, Even Through Imperfections
Larry Yang
If we focus only on awakening, we miss most of the spiritual practice. I’m much more interested in how we practice with not awakening, with not being enlightened, because, frankly, those states ...
Live Intentionally, In Freedom
Eknath Easwaran
Modern psychology commonly asserts that we cannot enter the unconscious fully aware. The mystic responds, "Oh, yes, you can! I have done it." The journey cannot be adequately described, but ...
Spiritual Materialism
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
What first comes to mind to speak about is my own spiritual materialism. I find that as I'm reading or reflecting upon the teachings and something becomes clear to me, I immediately want to rush o...