Category: Teachings

Disasters befalling one acquaintance and another. No shortage of reminders of how uncertain everything is, always. How constantly subject to change all that appears to be stable. (more…)

“Briefly, briefly, we see it, and forget,” writes the poet Jane Hirshfield. What is that it? How can it be described? How many moving accounts have I heard by now, that rare and cherished moment when utter stillness dawns, a quiet radical okayness suffusing the body. The visceral experience of all-is-well.  (more…)

We are all our lives estranged from our very selves — that stillness at the heart of each moment, the space that gently cradles every difficulty. Even a momentary delight is held in that space. For the truest self is its own felt presence, independent of outer conditions, of emotion and idea. (more…)

In some ways of looking at a human life, having a healthy sense of self appears to be a good thing, worthy of attention, possibly meriting professional support. The same goes with having healthy boundaries (if, for instance, one’s boundaries are somewhat permeable or tentative). If the sense of self is amorphous, or if the orientation to self is negative, there may be an effort to address these perceived “issues.” (more…)

A human being is endowed with two essential capacities. One is attention, which is about direct encounter, attuned to the sensation and movement of the immediate scene. The other innate gift is mental processing, in which the mind engages with what the senses have perceived. It does something with reality: names, interprets, judges. Perhaps it generates a story, which may stir a (mind-made) emotion. (more…)