A Way of Being

"Knowledge about is not the most important thing in the behavioral sciences today. There is a decided surge in experiential knowing, or knowing at a gut level, which has to do with the human being. At this level of knowing, we are in a realm where we are not simply talking of cognitive and intellectual learning, which can always be rather readily communicated in verbal terms. Instead we are speaking of something more experiential, something having to do with the whole person, visceral reactions and feelings as well as thoughts and words.
(Carl Rogers, A Way of Being)

Wonder, awe, and appreciation

"Our highest potential as a species is our ability to achieve full self-reflective consciousness or knowing that we know. Through humanities awakening, the Universe acquires the ability to look back and reflect back on itself--in wonder, awe, and appreciation."
Duane Elgin

Your work

Our work is to discover our lives and with all our heart give ourselves to it. (Shakyamuni - the historical Buddha)

Less Personal

"Meditation does not necessarily make the craziness go away; it just makes it less personal. You just have more space and the less you identify with it, the less likely you are to get stuck in it. You 'demagnatize' so that all the stuff can arise in the mind, but the awareness does not implode and contract and become identified with all the stuff in the mind. But the stuff still arises."
- Stephen Levine,

Cooperative Dance

The universe is an inseparable pattern of relationships and the mind is not separate from any other part of the body -- even the simplest cell, and evolution is a cooperative dance in which creativity and constant emergence of change are the driving forces.
Charlene Spretnak

Secret of Aikido

"The secret of Aikido is to harmonize ourselves with the movement of the universe and bring ourselves into accord with the universe itself. He who has gained the secret of Aikido has the universe in himself and can say, " I am the universe." I am never defeated, however fast the enemy may attack...When an enemy tries to fight with him, the universe itself, he has to break the harmony of the universe. Hence at the moment he has the mind to fight with me, he is already defeated.
Winning means winning over the mind of discord in yourself... Then how can you straighten your warped mind, purify your heart, and be harmonized with the activities of all things in nature? You should first make God's heart yours. This is a Great Love Omnipresent in all quarters and in all times of the universe. There is no discord in love. There is no enemy of Love."
- Morehei Uyeshiba

Wisdom Sits in Places

Do you want to have a long life? Well, you will need to have wisdom. You will need to think about your own mind. You will need to work on it. You should start doing this now. You must make your mind smooth. You must make your mind steady. You must make your mind resilient. If your mind is not smooth, you will fail to see danger. If your mind is not steady, you will be easily angered and upset and arrogant and proud. If your mind is not resilient, you will be unclear and easily startled.
Dudley Patterson, Apache Elder, from the book Wisdom Sits in Places by Keith Basso

Das ist komisch

[T]he horrific struggle to establish a human self results in a self whose humanity is inseparable from that horrific struggle. That our endless and impossible journey toward home is in fact our home. … [E]nvision us approaching and pounding on this door, increasingly hard, pounding and pounding, not just wanting admission but needing it; we don’t know what it is but we can feel it, this total desperation to enter, pounding and ramming and kicking. That, finally, the door opens…and it opens outward — we’ve been inside what we wanted all along. Das ist komisch.
Franz Kafka

Empathetic listening

"If you want to interact effectively with me, to influence me -- your spouse, your child, your neighbor, your boss, your coworker your friend -- you first need to understand me. And you can't do that with technique alone … you have to build the skills of empathic listening on a base of character that inspires openness and trust."
(Stephen Covey, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"

Making the Paradigm Shift

These persons of tomorrow are seekers. They wish to find meaning and purpose in life that is greater than the individual, (and) … are examining all the ways by which humankind has found values and forces that extend beyond the individual. … Persons with these characteristics will be at home in a world that consists only of vibrating energy, a world with no solid base, a world of process and change, a world in which the mind, in its larger sense, is both aware of, and creates, the new reality. They will be able to make the paradigm shift. Carl Rogers

WISDOM AT WORK

For a simple and effective method to clear and focus your mind throughout the day, shift into a receptive listening mode. It is so quick and easy! "The mystery, the essence of all life is not separate from the silent openness of simple listening," says Zen teacher Toni Packer. Simply pause for a few minutes and be mindful of the sounds around you. Notice the phone ringing, horns honking, the sounds of voices, the roar of traffic, the chirping of birds. Let your mind be like a sensitive antenna--a listening, receptive space of awareness in which sounds come and go, rising and falling into silence. Let your listening awareness effortlessly receive sound like an ocean receives rain or earth receives water. Without needing to think about them, just let the sounds come and flow. The moment you notice that you've spun off into thinking, smile to yourself and mentally say: "Listen )))" Notice how all sounds come out of silence--and dissolve back into silence. Notice how your listening mind is like the deep, clear sky which can contain limitless different sounds without any of them getting in the way. Just breathe, listen, and smile for a few deep refreshing moments.
Excerpted from "Wisdom at Work" by Joel & Michelle Levey

Without a Global Revolution

"Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe towards which this world is headed - be it ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization - will be unavoidable. . . The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility."
Vaclev Havel

Giving thanks

Give Thanks! 

When we arise in the morning, 
give thanks for the morning light,
 for our lives and strength.

 Give thanks for our food 
and for the joy of living.

 If we see no reason for giving thanks,
 the fault lies in ourselves.


~ Tecumseh ~

Raise your sails

"The winds of grace are always blowing, but it is up to you to raise your sails." Rabindinath Tagor

The Wise Heart

"The quieting of our mind is a political act. The world does not need more oil or energy or food. It needs less greed, less hatred, less ignorance. Even if we hae inwardly taken on the political bitterness or cynicism that exists externally, we can stop and begin to heal our own suffering, our own fear, with compassion. Through meditation and inner transformation, we can learn to make our own hearts a place of peace and integrity. Each of us knows how to do this. As Gandhi acknowledged, 'I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills." It is our inner nobility and steadiness that we must call on in our personal and collective difficulties.'
- Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart

The Art of Peace

"The Art of Peace begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task in the Art of Peace. Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment. Foster peace in your own life and then apply the Art to all that you encounter."—Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, from The Art of Peace.

For Heaven and future's sakes

“...But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.”
Robert Frost

The Psyche Needs to Know

In the same way that the body needs food, and not just any kind of food but only that which suits it, the psyche needs to know the meaning of its existence-not just any meaning, but the meaning of those images and ideas which reflect its nature and which originate in the unconscious. C. G. Jung

Loving humility

"At some ideas we stand perplexed, especially at the sight of human sins, uncertain whether to combat it by force or by human love. Always decide, 'I will combat it with human love.' If we make up our minds about that once and for all, we can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is the strongest of all things and there is nothing like it."
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky

What Makes Us Human?

All evolutionary processes depend on information being copied with variation and selection. Most living things on Earth are the product of evolution based on the copying, varying, and selection of genes. However, once humans began to imitate, they provided a new kind of copying and so let loose an evolutionary process based on the copying, varying, and selection of memes. This new evolutionary system co-evolved with the old to turn humans into more than gene machines. We alone on this planet, are also 'meme' machines. We are selective imitation devices in an evolutionary arms race with new replication processes. This is why we are so different from other creatures, this is why we alone have big brains, language, and complex culture.
Susan Blackmore, in "What Makes Us Human?"

A Question of Story

"It is all a question of story, we are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The old story, the account of how the world came to be and how we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have not yet learned the new story. Our traditional story of the Universe sustained us for a long period of time. It shaped our emotional attitudes, provided us with life purpose and energized action. It consecrated suffering and integrated knowledge. We awoke in the morning and knew where we were. We could answer the questions of our children. We could identify crime, punish transgressors. Everything was taken care of because the story was there. It did not necessarily make people good, nor did it take away the pains and stupidities of life or make for unfailing warmth in human associations. It did provide a context in which life could function in a meaningful manner.
-- Thomas Berry

Nature's Best Beings

Giving Birth,
Nourishing life,
Shaping things without possessing them,
Serving without expectation of reward,
Leading without dominating:
These are the profound virtues of nature,
And of nature's best beings.
--The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu

Personal identity is not all we are

"We each have a personal identity but often fool ourselves into thinking this is all we are. The ego is a harsh taskmaster who often has us on remote control, unconcerned with life's grand perspective. The inner self can lead us out of the prison of separation. As we come to understand our motives, we gain choice and are not obligated to operate from our prior automatic response patterns." Andrew Beath

When asked

When asked on his deathbed for his advice about life, Aldous Huxley, England's preeminent scholar and wise elder, simply said, "Just try to be a little kinder."

In our way of life ...

In our way of life, in our government, with every decision we make, we always keep in mind the seventh generation yet to come. It's our job to see that the people coming ahead, the generations still not born have a world no worse than ours - and hopefully better. When we walk upon Mother Earth we always plant our feet carefully because we know the faces of our future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them. (Oren Lyons, Faith Keeper of the Six Nations)

Navajo Blessing Way Prayer

In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.

Good at Heart

"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the suffering of millions, and yet if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, For perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out." --Anne Frank

Intention and resolution

Uncertainty, when accepted, sheds a bright light on the power of intention. That is what we can count on--not the outcome, but the motivation we bring, the vision we hold, the compass setting we choose to follow. Hence the essential importance and beauty of bodhicitta, the motivation of the bodhisattva. In the Buddha Dharma it is also called adhitthana, which connotes resolve and steadfastness in choice, and also the physical foundation of a building. As we explored together how intention can work in our lives, other images arose: we saw it as a rudder by which we can steer, as a vehicle we can ride, as refuge, the one thing we can be sure about. Resolve can save us from getting lost in grief.
- Joanna Macy -

Grist for the mill

Our Souls do not seek to manage the height of our joy, the depth of our pain, or the flat nature of our boredom. Instead,our Souls grow through our life experiences. The wider and richer our life, the more our Souls are enriched. This actually makes a beautiful kind of sense and may be helpful to caregivers caught in wondering about God's "willingness" to allow suffering in the world. For the personality, hard times, failure, hopelessness may feel like a disaster, for the Soul it may be grist for its strangely joyful mill.

The Wise Elder

The wise elder knows that a balanced life is about both saving and savoring the world. She sees the world as whole, and the whole is not just 'us' and 'our' predicaments. Whatever language we give to that, whether we call it spiritual or something else, the central idea is to recognize that it's about something much bigger than we are, and that we each need to sort out our roles in it.

Funeral Announcement

Harry Rubin - b. New York City 1913, d. Santa Monica, Ca., 2008. From his days as an undergraduate at UCLA Harry never held back an opinion or ceased to question the establishment or status quo. He stood true to his beliefs in free speech and a utopian world in which education would unlock possibilities for all, banish economic disparities, and make war obsolete. The question he considered seminal was "What does it mean to be human?" Ultimately he summed it up with a single phrase, "to be compassionate."

Presence

"In the presence of presence the accumulated suffering from the past begins to dissolve, and that's the true teaching. That's why presence is so beautiful and why people want to be close to a teacher. It's not the form of the teacher; the attraction is to be in the presence of the presence. It's a very powerful thing to sit with someone who looks like somebody but is not somebody. When there's somebody there who is transparent enough so that the stillness comes through unhindered, there's a reciprocal movement in you because the presence of stillness suddenly recognizes itself. There's an almost magnetic pull of being. It gets pulled out of you, forward, and it meets all of the other being's being. Words are not really necessary for that to happen. They can be floating on the surface. Being recognizes itself. People come together, being in response to being. That's the beauty of it."
Ekhart Tolle in an interview "Stillness & Presence" in Inquiring Mind 18:1, Fall 2001

The next American Revolution

"We are at a stage in human history that is as monumental as changing from a hunter/gatherer society to an agricultural society and from an agricultural society to and industrial society. Where we're headed now will be different because we have exhausted planetary space and human space for us to continue to look at things through the Cartesian measurement of material things. We need to face the way we used the world for our gains, pleasures, satisfactions. This is the way we evolve to a higher stage of humanity. And unless we want to live in terror for the rest of our lives, we need to change our view about acquiring things. We have the opportunity to take a great leap forward in these very challenging times. We need to change our institutions and ourselves. We need to seize opportunities. We need to launch our imaginations beyond the thinking of the past. We need to discern who we are and expand on our humanness and sacredness. That's how we change the world, which happens because WE will be the change."

We're the first culture in human history that hasn't had initiation ...

What makes for the best relationship between mentor and apprentice? The core of it is trust. The only way to build trust is through deep presence - meaning that both parties need to sense that it is an embodied thing, an earned thing. Great mentors are lovers of questions. They have the presence to hit the pause button and listen. Then they ask more questions. It's out of this deeper presence, this willingness to listen with patience that a meaningful relationship will grow. Richard Leider (Claiming Your Place at the Fire)

A new creation

“A person awakening in the morning is like a new creation. If we begin the day with unkind words or even trivial matters – even though we may later turn to prayer, we have not been true to our Creation. All of our words each day are related to one another. All of them are rooted in the first words we speak.” (Ba’al Shem Tov)

To be human ...

“To be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others. To remember the other world in this world is to live in our true inheritance. How we greet the dawn is a measure of the freedom we have made for ourselves.” (David Whyte)

Politics and Spirituality

"Politics and spirituality are the two sides of the same coin. Politics is the driving force visible to the outside; spirituality is the internal force driving the consciousness to open up to the world and conjoin it. Politics bared of spiritual awareness always leads to violence and the abuse of power. Spirituality without political engagement resembles an escape from the world."
-- Gundula Schatz

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
(from the Declaration of Independence)

A mature person

"A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity."
-Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and writer (1884-1962)

The humbleness of a warrior

The humbleness of a warrior is not the humbleness of the beggar. The warrior lowers his head to no one, but at the same time, he doesn't permit anyone to lower his head to him. The beggar, on the other hand, falls to his knees at the drop of a hat and scrapes the floor for anyone he deems to be higher, and yet demands that someone lower than him scrape the floor for him.
(From Tales of Power by Carlos Casteneda)