Reading Archives (2025)
Love Itself Was Gone
Leonard Cohen
The light came through the window Straight from the sun above And so inside my little room There plunged the rays of love In streams of light I clearly saw The dust you seldom see Out of which...
The Weighing
Jane Hirshfield
The heart's reasons seen clearly, even the hardest will carry its whip-marks and sadness and must be forgiven. As the drought-starved eland forgives the drought-starved lion who finally...
Fullness On The Other Side Of Emptiness
Mirabai Starr
In many mystical traditions, across the spectrum of the world’s religions, we find a paradoxical teaching that says the most reliable means for knowing God is by unknowing. Christian mysticism u...
Simple Was Satisfying
Susan Bauer-Wu
The cultivation of mindfulness is key to waking up and fully experiencing simple pleasures. Simple pleasures are small things that don’t cost much, if anything at all. Some examples (among my pe...
Dark Side Of Empathy
Michael Ventura
Empathy that connects, that builds, that heals requires a code of ethics. It requires restraint. It requires trust. It asks the empathizer not just to understand others but also to honor what that und...
Circles And Dots
Ameeta Kaul
The teacher drew a large circle on a paper pasted to a board. Then he turned to his students and said, This is the great circle of being. Nobody and nothing is outside it. The students listene...
Why DIY Devotion Doesn't Work
Sumit Nagar
We are not seekers anymore—we are shoppers, not always really shopping, perhaps just window shopping. In an age where attention spans have shrunk, just enough to handle the brevity ...
There Is Faith In Humor
Pope Francis
Life inevitably has its sadnesses, which are part of every path of hope and every path toward conversion. But it is important to avoid wallowing in melancholy at all costs, not to let it embitter the ...
End Of Violence
J. Krishnamurti
Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn't merely organiz...
The Fish, The Net, And The Water
Mauro Bergonzi
Once the fish said to the turtle: “I have heard about a huge thing that is called ‘the ocean.’ Does it really exist? I am looking around in search of it, but I can only see sand, ...
To Pray Without Ceasing
RM French
On the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost I went to church to say my prayers there during the liturgy. The first Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians was being read, and among other words I hear...
Don't Leave Me Raw
Omid Safi
A woman was standing over a fire, having poured a handful of dry, hardened chickpeas into water. As the water warmed up to the point of boiling, her mind began to wander. Then she heard a voice: ...
Unexpected Strength
Author Unknown
A 10-year-old boy decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident. The boy began lessons with an old judo master. The boy was doing well, so he co...
We See Into The Life Of Things
William Wordsworth
These beauteous forms, Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to th...
Inner Voice Vs. Ego Voice
David Sudar
I was recently talking to a friend who was laboring over whether or not to move in with her boyfriend. She had previously lived with a partner and it didn’t go well. She ha...
Inter-faith To Inter-Pilgrim
Ravi Ravindra
I have wished to engage in what may be called an inter-pilgrim dialogue. In my judgment, there is something wrong with interfaith dialogues. When the East-West or interfaith dialogues are too much bou...
Keep Your Eyes On The Horizon Of Kindness
Joy Harjo
Change rides in on many speeds. Lightning speed and we change worlds of perception overnight. We can suddenly lose everything, or gain what we have always hoped and dreamed. Some changes take centurie...
The Rooted Rock
Aiden Cinnamon Tea
Before you begin reading, adopt the pose of a rock—yes, a rock. Sit cross-legged (or stand if you prefer), make yourself as heavy and grounded as possible, and resist any temptation to move. Ima...
Isness
Lata Mani
Isness is the understanding that everything that exists is not only infinitely alive but also has its own particular vibrancy, vibration, specificity, particularity, and is in a deeply complex, mutual...
Kernel Of Corn
Thich Nhat Hanh
There was a patient in the mental hospital [in Vietnam] who seemed to be normal. He ate and talked like other people. But he believed that he was a kernel of corn, and every time he saw a chicken, he ...