Author: tomstellawebsite

     “Everyone has a double duty in life, to maintain a cultural life and a religious life, and the laws of these two realms are often diametrically opposed to each other. The duty of the church (whatever the creed) should be to assist people with their religious life, which involves seeing past duality and advancing … Continue reading Our Double Duty

    “In order to disobey, one must have the courage to be alone, to err, and to sin. But courage is not enough…Only if a person…has emerged as a fully developed individual and has thus acquired the capacity to think and feel for himself, only then can he have the capacity to say ‘no’ to … Continue reading The Virtue of Disobedience

“… feeling joy doesn’t come naturally to me. Working does. I’ve been so focused on getting things done, being successful, meeting that goal, completing that project I tended to bypass experience – the memories that deep-dive into the marrow of the moment – in order to drive forward and complete some agenda, and I regret … Continue reading Stop, Breathe, Be

“…Rilke writes, “All we have to do is to be, but simply, earnestly, the way the earth simply is.” Rilke knows that for most of us, nothing could be more difficult. We live in our heads, we live for the future, we live for retirement. This is a challenge for those influenced by Western traditions … Continue reading Paradise is at Hand

“As long as there have been humans, we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies … Continue reading We Are Star-Stuff

“Nonviolence seeks to “win” not by destroying or even by humiliating the adversary, but by convincing him that there is a higher and more certain common good than can be attained by bombs and blood. Nonviolence, ideally speaking, does not try to overcome the adversary by winning over him, but to turn him from an … Continue reading Dancing Alone

     “At my daughter’s bat mitzvah, I told her to say yes to life. That was my greatest hope for her. I long to infuse in her the power of holding another’s gaze, putting your face to the wind and fully feeling the cool breeze and mist kiss your skin, opening your heart to nature … Continue reading Seize the Day

“To be human – to be alive – is to fall into patterns of behavior. Some of these patterns are good. We are drawn to the comfort of routine, and we settle in, but there can also be a discomfort in going through the same motions. Just as slumping for hours in the same position … Continue reading Stuck in Place

“The biggest change we are likely to know is when old age, sickness, or death comes knocking at our door, or at the door of someone close to us. This shouldn’t be, we think. This can’t be. Even though we know conceptually that our life has an end-by date, even though we know that people … Continue reading The Biggest Change

“To come to ground is to find a home in circumstances, and in the very physical body we inhabit in the midst of those circumstances, and above all to face the truth, no matter how difficult that truth may be; to come to ground is to begin the courageous conversation, to step into difficulty, and, … Continue reading On Being Grounded