When we grasp on to things, they slip from us. When we try to avoid loneliness, it rushes in and fills us like air encountering a void. Attempts to stabilize result in things falling apart. Attempts to change meet resistance. The greater our understanding, the more we know we do not understand.
And the greatest calm […]
it is like this -
like lotus-flowers opening toward the morning sunlight,
brilliant white surrounding a gem
of pure still water,
like a diamond, exposing the light
for all it is.
it is like this -
yearning for this warmth in the early mists,
clarity half-absorbed, half-evaporated,
among the million lotuses,
two whose names are you and I,
sharing the gem’s root.
it is like this -
our […]
“From the perspective of an individual spiritual practitioner, the concept of one truth, one religion is valid; however, from the point of view of wider society at large the concept of many religions, many truths is valid; so there is no contradiction.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Silicon Valley, May 2001
This week reminds me how much I don’t know, not in a bad way, but in a bittersweet, difficult sense. One night, at the Shambhala Center, I responded to another meditator’s question about how to push thoughts away and why she ‘wasn’t very good at it’ by explaining she should not force meditation but rather […]
Today marks the final resolution of a process begun two years ago, and although the change, at this point, is almost entirely legal rather than psychological or emotional, I do feel a sense of liberation at arriving at this date: March 3, 2004. Normally, I’ve been pretty private about my life before 2002, preferring instead […]