Mistakes get a bum rap. People are terrified of them. They will do anything to avoid them. They will feel that they cannot make, and are not allowed to make, any kind of mistake. And they juxtapose mistakes with perfection. Being perfect is not making a mistake, they feel. That is where they aim to be. That is how they …
Guest Blog by Ari Baranson: Learning To Learn….
I lost my brother Paul on October 3rd, 2016 to a drug overdose. The decisions he made throughout his life could have taken him nowhere else. Like me, he had opportunities to change, but he refused. Like me, things would get better for a time, but he would sabotage his own happiness to continue down a path that he would …
Guest Blog by Aaron Ralby: Fluency in Dialogue….
Set dialogues have been vital tools for instruction for millennia. From wisdom dialogues in ancient Egyptian to Alfric’s Colloquies in medieval Latin, scripted dialogues constitute a practical literary form for condensing and presenting essential information in use as well as the ideal relationship between teacher and disciple. Today, we are probably most familiar with the language-learning dialogues that we had …
Able to Learn….
When my sons were young, I would ask, “Did you work to the best of your ability? Did you give it your all? Left nothing on the field?” Everyone’s 100% is different, and it also varies from time to time. When we work to our highest level at a given moment, we can feel a satisfaction that we accomplished our …
Teaching Stories Are Right in Front of Us….
Our lives are teaching stories, for us and for others. They should first be teaching stories for us, but we tend to avoid that, so we provide wonderful lessons to be learned by those watching us. Usually, we can see from someone else’s life what the lesson is, but it is more difficult for us to reflect and see the …
Gossip….
Do you know the difference between gossip and history? Do you know the difference between gossip and an entertaining story? Do you know the difference between gossip and a teaching story? Gossip actually derives from the Old English godsibb (“god-kin”): a word for someone with whom you are linked through sponsorship at a baptism. Over the centuries, it gradually evolved …
Guest Blog by Aaron Ralby: Deepening Sadhana….
When I was seven years old, my mother showed me what the Heart was. I can remember it vividly. I was standing in a room in our house we referred to as the den. It was daytime. My mother had already taught me that the Heart was not a physical organ, nor could it be reached by thought. I closed …
Monkey See, Monkey Don’t….
I feel like such an idiot. I thought that if I did my best to live an exemplary life, others would see it and want to follow that life. For many years I have openly modeled a life that is informed by the yamas and the niyamas, the restraints and observances in all religious traditions that lead a person down …
Guest Blog by Ian Ralby: On Guest Blogging ….
This is the fourth time I have had the opportunity to guest blog. In reflecting on the last three, I realized that I got something out of the exercise that transcended just “sharing” my own experience. Writing these blogs has forced me to practice at a deeper level. In the process of articulating my internal practice for others, I have …
Respecting Lineage….
If we want to learn, we have to surrender to instruction. This holds true in any area, but never more so than in spiritual practice. When we submit to instruction, we have to willingly diminish our autonomy. By giving up our say, we climb out of the kiddie pool of shrunken ideas and plunge into the ocean of true knowledge. …
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