Chapter 24 of the Tao te Ching by the legendary Lao Tzu offers helpful direction about the difference between self-awareness and self-deception. Let’s look at this one couplet. He who has power over others can’t empower himself. Lao Tzu suggests that we participate in life, we can’t control it. The effort to have power over others is a timeless form of denial of this great fact. Feeding the illusion of control diverts us from facing the truth of life, which... Read more

O Endless Creator, Force of Life, Seat of the Unconscious, Dharma, Atman, Ra, Qalb, Dear Center of our Love, Christlight, Yaweh, Allah, Mawu, Mother of the Universe…   Let us, when swimming with the stream, become the stream. Let us, when moving with the music, become the music. Let us, when rocking the wounded, become the suffering.   Let us live deep enough till there is only one direction, and slow enough till there is only the beginning of time,... Read more

Beyond all that pain has taught me, the soft well at the base of time has opened, and life touching me there has turned me into a flower that prays for rain. Now I understand: to blossom is to pray, to wilt and shed is to pray, to turn to mulch is to pray, to stretch in the dark is to pray, to break surface after great months of ice is to pray, and to squeeze love up the stalky... Read more

Expectation is premeditated disappointment. —Sogyal Rinpoche Everyone’s life journey eventually arrives at a precipice or fork in the road. At some point we will come to the end of a path and no longer know our way. Hard as this is, this is where the inner journey begins, when all we’ve carried has served its purpose and now we must burn our expectations to light our way. This is when we assume our full stature in order to see what’s... Read more

As we approach Inauguration day, I want to offer a deeper, broader context for the divisions we are facing as a nation.   The Two Tribes In the beginning, when the first humans came across each other, it went two ways. Upon seeing someone different, the more fearful one said, “You’re different. Go away.” The other, upon seeing someone not like him, said, “You’re different. Come, teach me what I don’t know.” While our reasoning has grown more complicated throughout... Read more

I was eight or nine, rummaging through her basement, through my dead grandfather’s books, when she appeared at the foot of the old see-through stairs, nostalgic and moved that I was searching through his things. There were no windows, and the only light came flooding down the length of stairs over her massive shoulders, giving a sheen to her matted gray hair. When I turned, she seemed an immigrant deity. I ran to her with this relic, so worn that... Read more

John’s father had built their home when John was a boy. It was perched on the side of a mountain overlooking the sea and John wanted to stay there as long as possible. But over the years, the ocean had worn away the shore and compromised the integrity of the foundation. No amount of repair could hide the fact that John would have to live elsewhere. He faced a heartbreaking but essential turning point in his life. He had to... Read more

If you try to comprehend air before breathing it, you will die.   If you try to understand love before being held, you will never feel compassion.   If you insist on bringing God to others before opening your very small window of life, you will never have honest friends.   If you try to teach before you learn or leave before you stay, you will lose your ability to try.   No matter what anyone promises— to never feel... Read more

Sometimes we seek refuge from our pain in the habits of life, as if sheer routine can put our wounds to sleep. But the habits of life can make us all a little squirrelly, and soon enough, we don’t want our little nest messed with. We don’t want anything unexpected or different to disrupt the little box we live in. We don’t want anything to unearth the pains we’ve buried. And just about the time we’re most inflexible, some great... Read more

No matter how I turn the magnificent light follows. Background to my sadness.   No matter how I lift my heart my shadow creeps in wait behind. Background to my joy.   No matter how fast I run a stillness without thought is where I end.   No matter how long I sit there’s a river of motion I must rejoin.   And when I can’t hold my head up it always falls in the lap of one who has... Read more