Spirituality Archive |
Pema Chödrön: Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better: Wise Advice for Leaning into the Unknown - GUEST BUTLER BETSY ELLIS, when not reading, is a Life Enrichment Specialist at Jewish Family Service of St. Paul and an artist. She loves nothing more than putting books in
Pema Chodron: Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears - My mother is 100. She lives in California. I call her almost every day. The other day I screamed at her and hung up. Awful, I know. I make a joke
Pema Chodron: The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving Kindness - I tend to go to Pema Chödrön when I discover that what I believe is my open, compassionate, loving heart is actually encased in concrete. Not that her
Pema Chodron: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times - Deirdre Blomfield-Brown went to the posh Miss Porter's School and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She married, moved to New Mexico, became a teacher, had two children.
Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind - Most mornings, as I start to work, I close my eyes and ask for help. Just that. No glance at the heavens. No formal prayer. Decades ago, I'd tried to
Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters on Life - At some point in your romantic life, you gave someone --- or, better, someone gave you --- Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet.” Decades later, it no longer embarrasses me
Ram Dass - "How good it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in harmony.” That was the huge banner hanging on the back wall of the church. My wife and I had come to
Razor-Wire Dharma: A Buddhist Life in Prison -
Rosh Hashanah: Is Bruce Springsteen (not a Jew) America’s Rabbi? - In God’s account books, Rosh Hashanah divides Jews into three categories. God immediately inscribes the names of the righteous in the Book of Life — they are sealed “to live.”
Sacred Landscapes: The Threshold Between Worlds - The books you’d take to a desert island? The Bible, of course. [Fun fact: Each year, the Bible is the best-selling book in America, with 25 million copies sold.] Shakespeare. [Because you
Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer’s Quest to Find Zen on the Sea - We’re fond of surfing in this establishment. My stepson is sufficiently hard-core to surf off Long Island in January; he’s the one who told me about characters like Miki Dora
Sarah Ban Breathnach: Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life - I met Sarah Ban Breathnach when she had just sold the zillionth copy of “Simple Abundance.” We became instant friends. In two decades, much has changed in our lives, and
Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace - Bird by Bird is the book to read if you’re a beginning writer, or a baffled amateur, or just want to witness a fine stylist making the keyboard sing. I don’t
Stars of David - Stars of David: Prominent
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion - The amount of cruelty in this country is now at epic levels. Pass over -- because some readers would call that a political opinion, which is verboten on these screens --
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom - A therapist of unbreakable sanity told me she encourages her clients to read “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom.” It’s clear. It’s short. It seems simple. It’s
The Kali Yuga - What if what's going on is bigger than politics, economic inequality, jingoism, racism and sexism? What if we’re experiencing a series of prompts that, taken together, should open our eyes
The Lamed Vav and “The Last of the Just” - Passover. We were spared the obsessive preparation for this holiday: the special plates, the bitter herbs, the family gathered around the TV for the ritual viewing of the Cecil B.
The Life of Milarepa - Every religion has saints who perform miracles and thus convince lesser believers of the rightness of their faith. Tibetan Buddhism is a particularly astringent discipline, fit
The Way of Chuang Tzu - It’s probably the best-known story from the fourth century before Christ: Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he
