The perennial Broadway musical Damn Yankees had a signature song,”You Gotta Have Heart,” which was sung by a group of underdog ball players trying to summon the courage to beat the fearsome Yankees in the big game. It was a beautiful, heartfelt moment in an uplifting musical. The key theme was the connection between heart … Read the rest
The Art of Changing
Say You Want a Revolution?
“You say you want a revolution, well you know, we’d all love to see the plan.”
— John Lennon
We’ve talked about stasis and change: the need to regroup, find a home base, and connect with ourselves. Naturally, this leads to a desire to move beyond that base and … Read the rest
HOME IS WHERE THE HURT IS
And Home is Where the Heart is
From the moment life emerged in that first warm pond, it has been on a continuous quest for safety and growth. While life seeks a safe place to rest, it also repeatedly ventures beyond its comfort zone to explore and evolve. Life has always been challenging, yet resilience … Read the rest
SPEAKING TO EACH OTHER
I would like to introduce the community council. The idea behind this gathering is to create a mindful approach to communication in our lives and within our community. This will also allow awareness of ourselves, which enables progress on our path.
The Power of a Dharma Community: One of the remarkable things about a Dharma … Read the rest
THE FEMININE
Understanding our Mother, Sister and Maiden
When exploring the feminine principle in human experience, we’re not specifically referring to women, but rather using the image of women as a gateway to understanding this essential energy. Everyone possesses both feminine and masculine energies, which together make up the whole integrated human experience.
Although masculine and … Read the rest
THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF BEING
I met one of my favorite authors at his book signing. I asked if he was happy with the book. He said he would have completed it much sooner had he been less important to himself. He offered a wry smile. It felt like he was telling me something about myself.
I have always been … Read the rest
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Maybe It Is All About Me
Let’s discuss the elephant in the room. Specifically, that big elephant standing in the middle of everything. This ungainly creature influences and interprets all we perceive, feel taste and touch, yet remains nonetheless unregarded and unseen.
The elephant is standing guard over our precious sense of self. Its primary
“HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE”
Compassion For an Annoying World
In the play, “Huis Clos” or “No Exit” French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre introduced three characters that represented a kind of social three-body problem that uncovered the basic instability of human interaction. The nature of this dynamic encouraged the edges of each personna to trigger the others. That dynamic continued
Waking Up in Chaos
Life can be overwhelming. Especially when we look at it. I used to love horror movies, but these days its enough to watch the news. Sometimes it seems we’re living in the apocolypse, as written by Steven King.
At this writing we are heading toward a pivotal, some say existential, national election. The two primary
FINDING TIME FOR KINDNESS
FINDING TIME FOR KINDNESS AND KINDNESS IN CHAOS
Before he turned his kingdom over to Buddhism, King Ashoka had been a particularly ruthless warlord. There is a story about a monk who walked on to a battlefield during one of King Ashoka’s typically vicious battles. There was an injunction at the time against monks