How we resolve the love machine: The love machine only keeps running because we fuel and maintain it. We even make sure to fix it when it breaks down. Any time the machine breaks down, we are given an opening, a wonderful opportunity—but we don’t take advantage of it; we don’t recognize the experience of actual love, and we reject …
The Love Machine Part One….
It’s all about recreating our childhood vibration, which we call love. We call it love (or safety, comfort, normalcy, etc.) because it is how the small self gets attention, and therefore power. For the small self, power is the surrogate for love. Intellectually we hate the vibration and look for “solutions”, but emotionally we crave it and keep looking to …
Talking, Doing, Being….
Idealists are idealized, and there is little people will say against them. We tend not to argue with them; most of the time they are right. Other names for idealists are visionaries, idea people, intellectuals, and talkers. Many of these people believe talking and sharing ideas are at a higher level than doing, and think their job is done when …
The Ease of Spiritual Practice….
Working to redirect to the true center is not easy; sometimes it can be extremely difficult. Somewhere in popular discourse, “ease” became a word that sat next to “spirituality”. Nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, the question needs to be “easy” for whom? If “spirituality” is a lifestyle driven by concepts and ideals, then “our small …
Redirecting Our Resolutions.…
As we approach the New Year our tendency is to look forward with hopeful, positive thoughts. We smooth out the past and move into the future with a smile and a raised glass. The world will be better, we will do better, we will care and love more. And every year we approach this time with this same ritual. There …
Practicing for the Right Reasons….
Are you practicing? No one has to know except you. Practice is done inside of you. What does it mean to practice? Being in the Heart. Staying in the Heart. Not straying. What do you do when going into the Heart is painful? You face the pain and burn it up. How do you burn up the pain? You burn …
The False Idol of Self-esteem….
Being strong-willed is not being willful, and freedom is not getting to do whatever you want. Our first lessons in these realities come from our first caregivers. These people demonstrate and reflect for us how to live. They both model and teach. Good leadership is like good parenting. Both embody and encourage behavior that is healthy for everyone involved. This …
War and Peace….
Peace is something we all say we want—except when we want to fight. Yes, many a morning each of us arises to enter battle rather than face a day filled with harmony and joy. So what is this desire to do battle, to fight to go to war? It is nothing new. War is the counterpart to peace; we cannot …
The Buck Stops Here….
There is a hidden joke in the title of this blog. I approach the protection of my garden in very much the way Baba taught me to handle security in the Ganeshpuri Ashram. In Ganeshpuri there were walls with broken glass on the top. Intruders came in through the drainpipes or the front gates. After we put screens over the …