As I rest in the gratitude of being a grandfather who has the opportunity to have my heart opened with joy, gratitude, humor, and love with this little guy, Felix, I am noticing that the many labors I have partaken in to heal and open my heart have come to fruition in ways could never […]
Pema Chodron STEPPING-STONES TO AWAKENING…There’s no way to make a dreadful situation pretty. But we can use the pain of it to recognize our sameness with other people. Shantideva said that since all sentient beings suffer from strong, conflicting emotions, and all sentient beings get what they don’t want and can’t hold on to what
The Wisdom of Stephen King “I have no particular spiritual insights, but I think every writer who does this on a daily basis has a ‘back channel’ to the subconscious that can be accessed pretty easily. Mine is wide and deep. I never write with an ax to grind, but I sense strongly that this
“Let people realize clearly that every time they threaten someone or humiliate or unnecessarily hurt or dominate or reject another human being, they become forces for the creation of psychopathology, even if these be small forces. Let them recognize that every person who is kind, helpful, decent, psychologically democratic, affectionate, and warm, is a psychotheraputic
“The heart is meant to be broken.” Its purpose is that it should melt into tears and disappear. The heart is to evaporate, and when the heart has evaporated, exactly in the same place where the heart was, you come to know the real heart…the deeper heart. Just like an onion, you peel it, and
A Practice “When you are unoccupied for a few minutes and especially last thing at night before falling asleep and first thing in the morning before getting up, ‘flood’ your body with consciousness. Close your eyes. Lie flat on your back. Choose different parts of your body to focus your attention on briefly at first:
In the Flow It seems to me that contemplation makes it almost inevitable that your politics is going to change, the way you spend your time is going to be called into question, and any smug or inferior social and economic perspective will be slowly taken away from you. When anyone meditates consistently, the things
“In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is
We wake up so that we can live from the heart, from the wholeness and completeness of life. It takes great courage and commitment to actually live and express this still point of love and clarity in daily living. It seems that life needs us—now more than ever—to attend to the heart of things, and
