Spirituality
Uncertainty is a very healthy place to dwell….
“The future is no more uncertain than the present.”
– Walt Whitman Poet
Some people despair about the darkening direction of the world today. Others are excited by the possibilities for creativity and new ways of living they see emerging out of the darkness. Rather than thinking one perspective is preferable to the other, let’s notice that both are somewhat dangerous. Either position, optimism or pessimism, keeps us from fully engaging with the complexity of this time. If we see only troubles, or only opportunities, in both cases we are blinded by our need for certainty, our need to know what’s going on, to figure things out so we can be useful.
Being authentic
“Care without candor creates dysfunctional relationships.
Candor without care creates distant relationships.
But care balanced with candor creates developing relationships.”
– James Maxwell
Is it time to step back, and, take a long view of life and reevaluate priorities ?
In high school, I had read a story by H. G. Wells about a child who wanders down an unfamiliar street and spots a door in a plain white masonry wall. He opens it and discovers a garden where everything is welcoming and full of peace – a place where he belongs. The next day he tries to go back, but the door has disappeared. Continue reading
The grace of surrender
What would it feel like to surrender to the rhythms and dynamics of life? What would it feel like to realize that we don’t really have a choice here—we can either participate with life, or resist it and drive ourselves to exhaustion and failure. Instead of working so hard to actively construct our lives, we could relax with the opportunities that life provides, both the good and the bad ones. People who have this type of relationship with life truly are more relaxed.
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Our indefatigable pursuit of pleasure keeps us doing some awfully strange things…..
One of my favorite stories comes from the Sufi tradition of mystical Islam. It is a tale that tells us exactly what we will have to face if we endeavor to walk the path of desire.
A man sits in the center of a Middle Eastern marketplace crying his eyes out, a platter of peppers spilled out on the ground before him.
What Constitutes Success
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; Continue reading
The seed of goodness and creativity is in everyone…..
Even a three year-old child knows the difference between growth and transformation. No child will look at a flower and say, “Oh, look at the big seed!” Nor would anyone look at an oak tree and say, “Wow, lookThe seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and a God seed into God.
– MEISTER ECKHART Continue reading
One aspect of wisdom is the deep understanding that we are all in the same boat….
DEALING WITH CHANGE
“An older man is walking down the street, and he hears a voice saying, “Psst, could you help me out?” He looks around, but he doesn’t see anybody. Again he hears, “Psst, could you help me out?” He looks down, and there is a big frog.
The more one forgets himself…..
“By declaring that man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. I have termed this constitutive characteristic “the self-transcendence of human existence.” Continue reading
ONE TUSK 