The Myth of Normal Friends, The excerpt for this week of January 31, 2023 is from the Sounds True, Insights at the Edge interview with Dr. Gabor Mate, “A Personal View of Healing into Wholeness in a Toxic Culture.” “Tami Simon: To start out, your new book, The Myth of Normal, first of all, it’s…
Working With Chaos Friends, The excerpt for this week is from “When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times.” by Pema Chodron, reprinted by Shambhala Publications as “Three Methods for Working with Chaos” in the 11/18/2022 issue of Lion’s Roar. “You may have noticed that there is frequently an irritating, if not depressing, discrepancy…
Cultural Evolution Friends, The excerpt this week is from GlobalNewThought interview with Jim Kenney entitled Cultural Evolution Part 3: THREE BENCHMARKS. How can we identify and understand genuine “new wave” value-shifts? The ideas presented here are developed in depth in Jim’s book called “Thriving in the Cross Current: Clarity and hope in a time of…
Call for Conscious Evolution Friends, The excerpt this week is from Craig Hamilton’s blog on “The Future of God: A Call to Consciously Evolve.” “What I want to address tonight is about where religion and spirituality, the human quest for meaning, is going now at the dawn of the third millennium. It’s about an inquiry…
Stop Trying to Fix the World Friends, The excerpt for this week of December 13, 2022 is from Barbara Carson Todd’s blog on 07/15/2019, “Stop Trying To Fix The World, It’s Not Your Job.” “Petty annoyances are designed to keep you in a perpetual ‘fight or flight,’ mode, which causes your body to wear…
Facing Existential Fear Friends, The excerpt this week is edited from a blog by Craig Hamilton entitled, “Is it Safe to Let Go? Facing Existential Fear on the Spiritual Path.” “Question: The more I’ve been engaging with spiritual practice, the more I’m starting to feel a deep existential paradox…. while awakening feels within reach, it’s…
Escape, Stabilize, Inspire Friends, The excerpt this week is from Agape minister Michael Beckwith’s 7/20/2022 Sunday talk entitled “Escape – Stabilize – Inspire.” “The theme of the month is “your ship is coming in.” It generally means that a big blessing is coming and that you are barraged by blessings all of the time, that…
Working With Loneliness Friends, The excerpt this week is from Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron, as posted by Lion’s Roar, entitled “Six Kinds of Loneliness.” “To be without a reference point is the ultimate loneliness. It is also called enlightenment…. How could we possibly have no reference point? To have no reference point would be to change…
Four Highest Emotions Friends, The excerpt this week is from an article in Lion’s Roar on cultivating loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity by Ayya Khema and excerpted from “Visible Here and Now: The Buddha’s Teachings on the Rewards of Spiritual Practice”, published by Shambhala Publications. “When we think of love, we have ideas that…
Find the Holy in the Daily Friends, The excerpt this week is from Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper from 04/04/2022 entitled “Find the Holy in Your Daily” including a conversation with Father James Martin and Rabbi Steve Leder. “Those of us with creative minds enjoy turning a blank canvas into something new. I’ve always had an…