Happy Mother’s Day! Here’s my mother…and saluting the strength of women everywhere… photo credit: virginia.mcmillan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Resistance Last week I said observe your thoughts, dispassionately, as a witness, and the gaps between thoughts will expand, and as you abide in the gaps, you will see more clearly. The questions which come up of course are [...]

Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don’t realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being. Eckhart Tolle Witness your thoughts, quietly and passively without [...]

If you’re like most people, you will resist letting go in one way or another. You might see the value of it right away. Perhaps you read about it here or you know about the Sedona Method or M2method or Byron Katie or EFT or through some sort of meditation. If you’re like me, you [...]

In response to why we don’t do the things which are good for us, Marc asked, reasonably, how do we even know what’s good for us? What a wonderful question! What is it that you really want? The conventional wisdom The lifestyle which our conditioning and society pushes on us is not conducive to awakening. [...]

Why is it hard for us to do the things we know are good for us? What is with us? Why are we not able to do the things which are in our self-interest? What is it that is so difficult about making loving choices? Here’s a simple example. If I want to lose weight, [...]

You see, when the mind is totally aware of its conditioning, there is only the mind; there is no ‘you’ separate from the mind. But, when the mind is only partially aware of its conditioning, it divides itself, it dislikes its conditioning or says it is a good thing; and, as long as there is [...]

“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” I used this quotation from cool-dude Dalai Lama about two years ago in an essay about unrequited love. It’s in one my books I think.  The quotation stuck with me because when I first saw it, I was in pain, from [...]

I think I saw this in a movie—A Jesuit priest in 1800’s goes to the Canadian wilderness to straighten out the brown people, the unfortunate heathens, and the Jesuit tells them of the hell-fire fury they’ll suffer if they don’t get on board, and this one aborigine, trying to follow the faith, asks if he’ll [...]

Finding Answers Last week I wrote about how adversity in my life brought me to awakening about three years ago, and not surprisingly, the article struck a chord with many. Most of us are rather too familiar with discontent. I’ve been through many cycles of examining my life-situation, as I’m sure you have too.  And [...]

You’ve by now probably heard of Susan Boyle, a modest 47-year old spinster from Scotland who showed up a derisive audience and and even more derisive panel of judges on the TV show “Britain’s got Talent.” Here’s how USA Today described the event: Boyle — 47, unglamorous, unfashionable, unknown — faced down a sneering British [...]