Last Friday, I killed my Mum. Not literally. She’s doing that under her own terms. But I shot an arrow at her with such focus and intention, that it penetrated through all the layers of mist and reached its target – her heart. The arrow was my words, conveyed with such powerful intensity that they would have penetrated even the thickest stone. Have you ever had that experience, either for yourself or witnessing it in someone else? So often, our mouth is disconnected from our Spirit. We talk – our lips flap around in the wind like a bird in flight, relaying our stories, our feelings, our opinions – but they are thrown into the wind with such little force,...
After serving as a surgeon in Vietnam at the height of the war, Dr. Gordon Livingston returned to the U.S. and began work as a psychiatrist. In that capacity, he listened to hundreds of people talk about their lives – what works, what doesn’t, and the limitless ways that people find to be unhappy. He is also a parent twice bereaved; in one thirteen-month period he lost his eldest son to suicide, and his youngest to leukemia. Out of a lifetime of experience, Gordon Livingston decided to write a series of beautifully calibrated essays entitled ‘Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart’. These essays underscore that while there may be no escaping who we are, it is never too late to move beyond loss, misfortune, or...
I was pondering today how much grief we give ourselves through our expectations. When we think something is going to happen a certain way and it doesn’t, it paves the way for disappointment and resentment. We even feel totally justified in feeling this way, as if the rules of life were that things should always go the way we expect them to go. How often is this at the very core of disputes within relationships? We expect that someone will meet our needs in a particular aspect of life. We expect that they will be loyal to us, love us from head to toes, agree with the things that are most important to us….and when they don’t, we feel let...
What would you do if you wanted to share about a great Tibetan Master, and you found two completely different accounts of his life? One account speaks directly to your heart, and is the story told by an enlightened master from India. The other is the academic version told in Wikipedia and other websites, which has been passed down from human to human, and which speaks to the intellect. Which story would you tell? The answer speaks for itself. None of us know the truth behind either story, however I am going to tell you the heart story, for hidden within this story are the keys to open the door of wisdom, a door buried not in...
If I ask you “What is meditation?”,what would your answer be? Many people would answer “stillness of the mind”. But is this the truth? This is like saying that working out at the gym is all about strength. Well, it is and it isn’t. We work out at the gym in order to build strength. It’s an ongoing practice to take our muscles in directions they may not ordinarily roam, and strength is the ultimate outcome. This is a great analogy for meditation. Like working out at the gym, meditation is a practice. It’s not designed to be done once and perfected. Instead, like the gym, it puts the “muscles” of our mind into activities that they don’t normally do, in...
