The Golden Rule
The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as we would expect to be treated. It is a maxim of reciprocity. It’s found in most faiths and many philosophies throughout the ages, though it …
Our Person
Our evolution is linear, as in stepping through the stages of development, but also cyclic. We have seasons of great experiences, and seasons dominated by cleaning house. It can be hard to find time for …
Our Family
We live in a sea of relationships, our lives interconnected with others through birth, karma, and shared origins. Interconnected groups of these relationships are like tiers of family. Our Birth family: the usual family we’re …
On Money
Money can be a rather vexing arena. For example, the saying “money is the root of all evil.” Demonizing money is very unhelpful. I would argue that money is not the problem, it’s greed and …
The Kiss of Karma
A great article by Tanuka Gupta on taking responsibility for what is arising in experience rather than blaming and bypassing, both of which perpetuate suffering. The Kiss of Karma A related quote from Kavitha: “The …
Perspectives on Maya
I recently saw a reference to six ways maya is described and experienced. I thought this was worth exploring. First, maya is defined as the appearance of the world. It comes from the root ‘to …
The Guru
Guru is a Sanskrit term meaning remover of darkness. It’s often translated as teacher. Rishi means seer, someone who sees reality. A rishi may or may not also have the skills of a teacher. As …
Pursuing Virtue
We define a virtue as a moral excellence or goodness. We express our virtues as character strengths we can offer the world. “The number of potential character strengths profiles is exponentially greater than the number …
Healing Trauma
A reader recently mentioned the work of Irene Lyon, a specialist in somatic (body) healing. When we’re unable to fully process a traumatic experience, that stress may be stored in the physiology. Even if it’s …
The Biology of Not Enough
In a recent article, Kavitha Chinnaiyan made some interesting observations around early childhood development. She noted that our mental narrative-making has biological roots. That every childhood has trauma simply because our caregivers couldn’t be there …
The 5 Apology Languages
I’ve written before about the 5 Love Languages. I found this quite insightful. People are prone to recognize and express love in certain ways. If two people are out of sync, they can become frustrated. …
Cursing
Recently, a topic came up that I’ve not discussed here before. That of cursing. We could say cursing is the opposite of gratitude. It is an angry expression of non-acceptance. Some people curse habitually. In …