As always, the wave lives the life of a wave, and at the same time, the life of water. When you breathe, you breathe for all of us.  Most people view themselves as waves and forget that they are also water. They are used to living in birth-and-death, and they forget...

Each one of you is so amazing. Right now you have in you one quadrillion cells. That’s one hundred trillion times one thousand. About nine hundred trillion of those cells are not human. They are virus, bacteria, and microorganisms. What makes us human, ironically, is...

Five years after leaving Berkeley, I found myself sitting in circles again. This time it was at Pendle Hill, a Quaker living-Learning community near Philadelphia, where I spent eleven years starting in the mid-1970s. But these circles, I soon discovered, were of a...

Is there a secret to happiness? Is happiness spending time with loved ones, or spending time alone in nature? Is it losing yourself as you dance to music, or finding yourself while quietly meditating? The secret to happiness is actually all of these things and more,...

The sun is the perfect example of acting without desire. When the sun rises does the idea enter its mind to say, 'I shall banish the darkness, I shall urge the birds to fly, and I will set people working'? No, the sun always stays still, and yet its stillness makes...

Happy Birthday, Dear Sister. Welcome to the festival of this world. I pray in silence on this day, That you are bestowed with the gift of Nothingness! That Nothingness which is full of space, Like the universe that holds this cosmic life. That Nothingness which...

Symphony Of Peace Prayers At Mount Fuji | ServiceSpace.org http://www.servicespace.org/blog/view.php?id=16900

In our lives we often find ourselves in situations we can’t control, circumstances in which none of our strategies work. Helpless and distraught, we frantically try to manage what is happening. Our child takes a downward turn in academics and we issue one threat after...

A Zen student walked in to see the master. Sitting down, he blurted out, "There's something terribly wrong with me!" The master looked at him and asked, "What's so wrong?" The student, after a moment's hesitation, responded, "I think I'm a dog." To that the master...

We now know that the true meaning of responsibility is response able or ability to respond. Whatever we may think, say, do or feel - these are our responses for which we, and no one else, are responsible. This is easy to see but hard to live, for we have been taught...

  “Give me a place to stand on," said the Greek mathematician Archimedes, “and I can move the world.” He was talking about his invention of using pulleys and levers to raise very heavy objects. A physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer as well, Archimedes...

Grace is an important aspect of expanding our happiness, because it is through grace that we express love and blessings completely and unconditionally. We are each a source and conduit of grace. Grace is a loving power and presence that elevates and brightens whatever...

Have you ever noticed that happiness is not a dependency, it is a decision? You don't actually need anything to be happy. It's not something that comes from outside, it comes from inside, and when you radiate a happy energy you'll be amazed what it attracts into your...

I got a call that a dear friend of mine, who received precepts from me years ago when I lived at Green Gulch, was dying. I arranged with her husband to go and see her and give her the precepts again. One of the things that have been very helpful to me around this...

Nonresistance doesn’t necessarily mean doing nothing. All it means is that any 'doing' becomes nonreactive. Remember the deep wisdom underlying the practice of Eastern martial arts: Don’t resist the opponent’s force. Yield to overcome. Having said that, 'doing...

Dear Sam, One night in the hospital, a friend came to visit me. I told her I didn't think I could go on anymore. What I was feeling went beyond despair. It was a loss of hope — of everything I valued, trusted, and loved. The pain had become simply unbearable. That...

What I am experiencing at this moment is the result of choices and decisions made in the past; what I will experience in the future depends on choices and decisions I make now. Happiness is a daily choice.

As Eckhart teaches us, in the ancient spiritual philosophy of India, there’s a term called ‘turiya’ which refers to the fourth state of consciousness. The first state of consciousness is the waking state we all know, while the second and third are the dream state...

A common theme runs through all the great spiritual traditions. It goes by many names – awakening, recollection, mindfulness, dhyana, remembrance, zhikr, presence – and by no name at all. This state of consciousness adds further dimensions to being in this world....

I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am. ~ Eckhart Tolle

'Every fragment of self-talk is a little story in the head that goes around, and then you look at reality through the lens of the little story.' ~ Eckhart Tolle  

In ordinary unconsciousness, habitual resistance to or denial of what is creates the unease and discontent that most people accept as normal living. When this resistance becomes intensified through some challenge or threat to the ego, it brings up intense negativity...

When we say “yoga,” for most people it probably means twisting the body into impossible postures. That’s not what yoga is about. Among the Yoga Sutras, which form the bedrock of today’s yoga, only one sutra is dedicated to asanas. All Patanjali said was “Sthiram...

When you are no longer totally identified with forms, consciousness - who you are - becomes freed from its imprisonment in form. This freedom is the arising of inner space. It comes as a stillness, a subtle peace deep within you, even in the face of...

The most powerful anchor on our potential to soar high in life is the past. The past contains the dead weight of experience, learned beliefs and all our mistakes. Life cannot truly begin until we are able to say goodbye to the legacies of yesterday at will. Like a...

'The future, the worry, the regret, the anxiety – these are all mental events that do not have to be part of the difficulty of life; these can be transcended here and now.' ~ Eckhart Tolle

Agitation is interesting. Something is stirring up, wanting to be changed. And the mere asking of a question about it implies that there is some resistance to agitation, some form of non-acceptance. Somehow we’ve learned to not be okay with what arises within....

'The greatest difficulty is the mental resistance to things that arise, and the underlying assumption that they should not.' ~ Eckhart Tolle

“You can only feel creative when there is joy. When there is a sense of passion.”— Andreas MoritzPassion is the powerful, focused force of happiness directed to a specific interest in life. Passion is a tremendous asset in expanding our happiness, because it draws our...

The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity — the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize...

When you are very tired, you may become more peaceful, more relaxed, than in your usual state. This is because thinking is subsiding and so you can’t remember your mind-made problematic self anymore. You are moving toward sleep. When you drink alcohol or take certain...

'Spirituality is a state of connectedness to life. It is an experience of being, belonging and caring. It is sensitivity and compassion, joy and hope. It is the harmony between the innermost life and the outer life, or the life of the world and the life universal. It...

'The joy of Being, which is the only true happiness, cannot come to you through any form, possession, achievement, person, or event - through anything that happens. That joy cannot come to you - ever. It emanates from the formless dimension within you, from...

'Your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now. As you become more deeply aware of this one step, you realize that it already contains within itself all the other steps as well as the destination. This one step then becomes transformed into an...

J. Krishnamurti, the great Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher, spoke and traveled almost continuously all over the world for more than fifty years attempting to convey through words - which are content - that which is beyond words, beyond content. At one of his...

Water in its clear softness fills whatever hole it finds. It is not skeptical or distrusting. It does not say this gully is too deep or that field is too open. Like water, the miracle of love is that it covers whatever it touches, making the touched thing grow while...

  You cannot see space, of course, nor can you hear, touch, taste, or smell it, so how do you even know it exists? This logical-sounding question already contains a fundamental error. The essence of space is no-thingness, so it doesn’t “exist” in the normal sense...

To end the misery that has afflicted the human condition for thousands of years, you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment. That means now. Ask yourself, “Is there negativity in me at this moment?” Then, become...

'Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.' ~ Eckhart Tolle

Any thought that you have had about yourself, however deflated or inflated, is not who you are. It is simply a thought. The truth of who you are cannot be thought, because it is the source of all thoughts. The truth of who you are cannot be named or defined. Words...

We all judge our experiences through the filter of habitual think­ing. In other words, we are unconsciously driven by how we think, and how we think determines the feelings and opinions we develops toward people, objects and situations. But such opinions and...

The skill of manifestation is in using our awakened self-awareness. There are three components to this awareness: expanded consciousness, focused consciousness, and fluid consciousness. The unity of these three creates the matrix of manifestation. Unbounded awareness...

Our deepest desire is for spiritual awakening, which is the state of fulfillment and completeness. All other desires are variations on this basic desire for actualization. Every desire is a fragment of our being that seeks awakening, completion, and wholeness. ~...

“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” ~ Albert Schweitzer Compassion from the soul level happens when we spiritually embrace another soul without reservation or judgment. Compassion validates people in a...

’I am’ itself is God, the seeking itself is God. In seeking you discover that you are neither the body nor the mind, and the love of the self in you is for the self in all. The two are one. The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really...

“We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil.” ~ Swami Satchidananda Let us bring our attention to the peaceful and serene influence we can offer the world around us. For our serenity to have a powerful...

You can't change the kind of person you are later. There is no later. It's always now or never. You can't be kind later. And you can't learn later. Choose to change now, and that moment will never come for you to worry about how to be better next time. Why? Because...

If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. As soon as you honor the present moment, unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a...

How audacious that we can even think we can allot a day for the earth! Both day and night happen only because the earth revolves. Our very body is an extract from this planet. For human beings who have forgotten that they have just temporarily come out of the womb of...

Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In other words, if we’re going to be more cheerful in the future, it’s because of our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What we do accumulates; the future is the result of...

The source from which the world and mind rise and into which they set is termed Reality, which does not rise nor does it subside. - Ramana Maharishi

Behind all creation is silence. Silence is the essential condition, the vital ingredient for all creation and all that is created. It is a power in its own right. The artist starts with a blank canvas - silence. The composer places it between and behind the notes. The...

Enlightenment means consciousness beyond ego and evolution means development in time. So Evolutionary Enlightenment means the development in time of consciousness beyond ego. The path, in the context of evolutionary enlightenment, is at least in theory quite simple....

We might call it the malady of contemporary spirituality. As a speaker, writer and spiritual mentor, I hear it all the time. The refrain usually goes something like this: "I’ve been on the spiritual path for years. I’ve meditated, gone to therapy, and attended dozens...

Richard Moss: The words, "personal transformation" are increasingly used in the community of people seeking psychological and spiritual healing and exploration, but there isn’t general agreement on what the words mean. To some people it has to do with personal...

Introduction The Work of Byron Katie is a way to identify and question the thoughts that cause all of the suffering in the world. It is a way to find peace with yourself and with the world. The old, the young, the sick, the well, the educated, the uneducated—anyone...

Many of us today are engaging in a tremendous amount of spiritual work on ourselves. We’re meditating, praying, attending workshops, seminars, and retreats. And yet the vast majority of us are making the same mistake. We tend to put far too much significance on the...

As we all know, the Earth has shifted once again. Just the slightest change from deep beneath the waters, a crack in the fabric of her lining, and islands quake while tsunami waves rush across shorelines. We awake believing the world – our world – is stable, only to...

I was recently asked if I could put some affirmations on the website to help empower and open us up to higher guidance. I am grateful for this suggestion and thought I would share a Life Script. This is a description of what you’d be experiencing if you...