Life is an endless parade of challenges. Decisions to be made, situations to address, things to do, opportunities to take, threats to avoid and problems to overcome. From a strictly human perspective life can be pretty bumpy. People get hurt, dreams are crushed, desires squelched. What causes us to do what we do? What motivates us? We tendRead more
compassion
The Problem With Problems
No one likes having problems. We want an idyllic life, free from stress and difficulty. Most of us long for a life on a south sea island, free from kids and other people, no obligations, no hassles, no problems and free chocolate – right? You’d think the way some people keep their lives in constant tumult that theyRead more
The Stages of Life
When Ramanaha Maharshi sought to explain life, he used the analogy of a movie. He described life as happening on a movie screen – fleeting, transient images that were not “real,” but gave the appearance of reality. “Reality,” he maintained, took place somewhere else. I want to expand a bit on Maharshi’s analogy. But instead of a movie,Read more
Two Choices
Pretend that you are looking into two large rooms. The rooms appear identical – the same people, the same relationships, etc. But appearances can be deceiving. If you look carefully, there are important differences. In Room One, everyone operates from ego, much as in our world today. Every relationship in this room is based upon uncertainty and anxiety: “WillRead more
Prayer
We accept many things without thinking about them. Take the idea of prayer. We view prayer as some sort of a conversation with God. In this view, prayer is like making an international toll-free call. But, for very important reasons a conversation with God is unlike any other, and that changes the nature of the thing. As aRead more