Attuned to Soul

“There are moments, often unexpected, when you find yourself at home in your own life. Simple, gentle, ordinary moments. Standing at the kitchen window. Rain outside. The earth springing into green and yellow. The birds, the ridiculous birds, singing without worry beneath the gray sky. For some reason, without effort, the anxiety lifts, your chest … Continue reading Giving In

“We have many ideas about how we should be and how the world should be, yet none of these is the way things are. Human life is a tainted glory - messy, paradoxical, filled with contradictions. The cloak of the world is woven with magnificence and limitation, triumph and disappointment, loss and eternal re-creation. To … Continue reading The Elegance of Imperfection

“Every time I make the steep drive up the hill, I’m bringing fresh perplexities. Our daughter, Sachi, has been diagnosed with cancer and is spending an entire year in the hospital; my mother, on this side of the Pacific, has told friends that she wishes she could have thrown herself on the equivalent of her … Continue reading The Still Point Within

“… I feel like entrances are everywhere. And I think that the world would be an even more cruel place than it already is if the only people who are allowed to go on spiritual journeys are people who could afford a plane ticket to India,…because we all know that people find access to God … Continue reading Enter Here

     “Once you learn to appreciate emptiness as a positive theme in daily life, you may become a different sort of person. You may not be so anxious when losses come. You make yourself busy just to avoid facing your fate and your emotions. Busyness may be a way of avoiding real work…               Now … Continue reading Shelter in Place

“We often fear that something is missing within us, that something is wrong with us. We live with the pervasive sense that we are not enough, and no matter how much we try, we will never be enough … We keep waiting for something to complete us.     This is “worldly waiting” – waiting for … Continue reading Sacred Waiting

“Now commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope … Continue reading How Sweet it is

“Many people have negative attitudes toward mysticism and often use the word “mystic” pejoratively to indicate someone who is seriously and deliriously out of touch with reality. As a student of religion I say the opposite: Mystics are the ones who have actually gotten in touch  with what is real…They are porous and have the … Continue reading Mysticism

“Bono is playing a U2 concert in Ireland when he asks the audience for quiet.      Then in the silence, he starts to slowly clap his hands, once every few seconds.      Holding the audience in total silence, he says into the microphone, “Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies.” A … Continue reading Yuck it Up

“When I get down and my life is logjammed and I need some affirmative action, I go where people dance. I don’t mean joints where people go to get crocked and then wobble around on the floor to music. I mean places where people who really like to dance go to do that. I like … Continue reading Learning to Dance