The God Whom I Love is Inside (retreat talk)
Our suffering arises from unlived life–the fears and loneliness and hurt that we have been unable to digest and include in our heart. This talk explores our conditioning to become dis-embodied and the blessings of spiritual realization that arise as we inhabit our aliveness fully.
Which Wolf Are You Feeding?
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as many people feared an ongoing and vicious spiral of retaliation and global violence, a wonderful and well-known Cherokee legend went viral on the Internet: An old grandfather is speaking to his grandson about what...
Rejecting the Wanting Self
“We have been raised to fear…our deepest cravings. And the fear of our deepest cravings keeps them suspect, keeps us docile and loyal and obedient, and leads us to settle for…many facets of our own oppression.” – Audre Lourde In the myth of Eden, God created the...
Turning Toward the Light
This solstice talk explores how, in the face of darkness – unconsciousness, ignorance, violence – we can call on the light that is within us. The two pathways are to courageously look directly into the places of suffering, and to include in our gaze, the intrinsic goodness in all beings, in life.
Guided Meditation: Arriving In Sacred Presence
Blog: Connecting with Our ‘Soul Sadness’
Marge, a woman in our meditation community, was in a painful standoff with her teenage son. At fifteen, Micky was in a downward spiral of skipping classes and using drugs, and had just been suspended for smoking marijuana on school grounds. While Marge blamed...
Forgiving Our Way to Freedom
Living with chronic blame or resentment is a trance that confines us to a limited fragment of what we are. This talk looks at the ways this trance is fueled and the process by which we release the armoring around our hearts.
Guided Meditation – Coming Home to Presence
Blog: Self-Forgiveness and Making Amends
We are deeply imprinted by the suffering we have caused others. This imprint is sometimes felt as shame, guilt, or remorse, and it is our heart’s sensitivity calling us to attention. In the Buddhist teachings, such sensitivity can be intelligent and healthy—it plays...
A Forgiving Heart – Embracing Our Inner Life
Self-aggression, whether it’s low key blame or deep condemnation, prevents us from intimacy with others and discovering the truth and wholeness of our Being. This talk explores how we can release self-blame, and free ourselves to access our natural warmth and creativity in responding to our world.
Guided Meditation
Blog: Loosening the Grip of Core and Limiting Beliefs
I’ve gotten free of that ignorant fist that was pinching and twisting my secret self. The universe and the light of the stars come through me.—Rumi Our core beliefs are often based on our earliest and most potent fears—we construct our strongest assumptions...
Blog: Opening the Gateway of Love
As one of the American pioneers credited for bringing Eastern spirituality to the West, Ram Dass had more than four decades of spiritual training to help guide him when he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage in 1997. Nonetheless in the hours after his devastating...
Gratitude & Generosity: Markings of Inner Freedom
Those who are genuinely happy, are also naturally grateful for life and generous in living. This Thanksgiving Eve talk explores key ways we block the arising of gratitude and generosity, and practices of mindful presence and direct cultivation that awaken these expressions of the liberated heart.