In the Bible, Paul is credited with the verse, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” From the yogic perspective, mature faith is helpful in spiritual development, but we don’t want this as our terminal point. We desire to develop the vision to see what was […]
One of our gurus, Sri Ma, explained our situation in a concise manner. She said, “Spirituality is very simple, it means giving more than you take.” Everyone who has parented children has heard some version of the refrain, “It ain’t fair.” When our now 22 year-old son, Jahnu, was a little boy and would express
In our modern age, we often imagine we are too sophisticated to believe in myths. We scoff at the beliefs of previous eras, when supposedly superstitious people told fairy tales about supernatural forces that influenced human events. It’s not entirely a bad thing that we are more rational; none of us would benefit from returning
The Myth of ‘The Thinker’ Read More »
Did you ever go to a party and meet someone, then a moment later forget their name? Well, that’s like my whole life. I have been accused of having a poor memory, and I think there may be some validity to this. The thing is: it’s not as if my powers of recollection are weaker
I Don’t Mind, Part 2 My buddy, Mahavir, spent most of his life as a guest of the State of New York. That is, he was in their prison system for about 45 years. He’s not with us in this world anymore, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me sharing some of his story. When
I Don’t Mind, part 2 Read More »
Life in a material world is difficult. It’s not easy having a body and all this entails. There’s so much to navigate here; from food to clothing to shelter, from relationships to work, from trying to keep your kids from killing one another (kidding) to trying to keep others from killing one another (not kidding).
A Pandemic of Healing Read More »
The other day, I put on some socks. Lo and behold, it was uncomfortable to walk because there was a pebble in one of the socks. I sat down, took off the sock, shook out the pebble and went about my day. We all have things in our lives that make us uncomfortable. This should come
A Pebble in My Sock Read More »
There once was a teenage boy who was quite the rapscallion. He was in trouble at school, with the local authorities, and seemingly immune from social niceties. He came from a good family, and his parents tried everything to get him on the straight and narrow. They had him speak with his school principal,
In the epic myth, Ramayana, Hanuman is presented as being the intermediary between the world of humanity and that of divinity, a Christ figure. His mother was a monkey, his father was the god of wind. As such, he is part mammal and part divine spirit, just like us. The genius of portraying such a
This Stuff Really Works Read More »
The contemporary Zen Master, John Daido Lori, has said that for an aspirant to progress on the spiritual path he or she will need Great Faith, Great Doubt, and Great Determination. I capitalize these qualities in an effort to represent the magnitude of the spiritual undertaking. We are not referring to faith, doubt, or determination
