“The world is incomprehensible. We won’t ever understand it; we won’t ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat the world as it is: a sheer mystery.” ~ Carlos Castaneda Yesterday, after an absolutely lovely and peaceful afternoon walk through the Conservatory Gardens in Central Park, Peter and I returned home, turned on our respective [...]
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Happy For No Reason
For years I’d heard that qigong was an ideal meditation for physical healing, and when I first experimented with it, I did find that the practice helped me feel more embodied and energetically attuned. Qigong is based on a Chinese system of still and moving meditation. At its heart is the understanding that this world [...]
The Three Qualities of Awareness
About 2,600 years ago, when Siddhartha Gautama (the soon-to-be Buddha) sat down under the bodhi tree, his resolve was to realize his true nature. Siddhartha had a profound interest in truth, and the questions “Who am I?” and “What is reality?” impelled him to look even more deeply within and shine a light on his [...]
The Backward Step
Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa once opened a class by drawing a V on a large white sheet of poster paper. He then asked those present what he had drawn. Most responded that it was a bird. “No,” he told them. “It’s the sky with a bird flying through it.” How we pay attention determines our [...]
Tara Brach: I’m Nothing, Yet I’m All I Can Think About
Writing and speaking about the nature of awareness is a humbling process; as the third Zen patriarch said, “Words! The way is beyond language.” Whatever words are used, whatever thoughts they evoke, that’s not it! Just as we can’t see our own eyes, we can’t see awareness. What we are looking for is what [...]
Defending Against Loss
The Buddha taught that we spend most of our life like children in a burning house, so entranced by our games that we don’t notice the flames, the crumbling walls, the collapsing foundation, the smoke all around us. The games are our false refuges, our unconscious attempts to trick and control life, to sidestep its [...]
“Please Love Me”
Indian teacher Sri Nisargadatta writes, “The mind creates the abyss. The heart crosses over it.” Sometimes the abyss of fear and isolation is so wide that we hold back, unable to enter the sanctuary of presence, frozen in our pain. At such times, we need a taste of love from somewhere in order to [...]
Prayer in the Face of Difficulty
Ask the friend for love Ask him again For I have found that every heart Will get what it prays for most. – Hafiz When offered with presence and sincerity, the practice of prayer can reveal the source of what your heart most deeply longs for—the loving essence of who you are. Perhaps without [...]
Stop Comparing Yourself to Others… Be Your Own Valentine
Stop comparing yourself to others. There are 7-billion people on this planet… and only ONE you. YOU have ZERO competition in being yourself. Gandhi is taken. Buddha’s been done. Bruce Lee has already had his fun. Your true SELF is brighter than the sun. You being YOU will make you the only One. You are [...]
Meeting Our Edge and Softening
It’s another morning, another day of having to live inside a hurting body inherited from a little known, rare genetic condition. I try not to think of how it used to be. I can let go of the younger me, the one who won a yoga Olympics by holding wheel pose for more than eighteen [...]
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“Too Religious” for School: Yoga Curriculum Sparks Lawsuit in Southern California
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Feeling Stuck? 4 Tips to Move On
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New Yorkers: Be in a new OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) show w/ Deepak Chopra, 6/1/13!
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“Fitch, Please”: Ellen Degeneres’ Hilarious Response Abercrombie’s Sizing Policy
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