What's Happening Now
The Bristle Reaction
Has a simple touch come to mean "one thing"? How to develop physical intimacy beyond sex.
How to Build Trust
It takes three legs: logic, empathy and authenticity. Do you have these connections with yourself?
Writers, Worried about AI?
Here is Margaret Atwood critiquing an AI written poem and story in her style. Is she worried? Read on.
If This Can Happen...
... then every polarized group in the world must reconsider their beliefs.
Virtual Vacation
While this was written during the pandemic, the advice to create your own reality is as valid now as it is during a lockdown. Take a weekend vacation to Tahiti with music, food, drinks and a movie!
What Gets Me Smiling
Now This Military I Can Support!
Check out the Swedish military covering "Greased Lightening!"
The Eye of Nature
See this natural wonder!
Girl Power
For all you hands=on girls who had construction geeky fathers and/or brothers like me, here's affirmation that getting your hands dirty is good for the mind.
The Outer Space of Oceans
Which has more amazing sights, the ocean or space? Decide for yourself.
Being Outdoors, Not a Luxury
We tend to prescribe being outdoors when we are stressed, or need a break. New science says it is integral to our well-being and not just as a pick-me-up.
Teachers, Teachers, Teachers
Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle explains Buddhist principles clearly, and offers present day interpretations of many spiritual texts. From The Power of Now, "Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you."
Alan Watts
A 1960s, self-proclaimed "spiritual entertainer," Alan Watts uses engaging and provocative analogies to describe Zen Buddhism. From Become What You Are, "You may believe you are out of Harmony with Life and its Eternal Now but you can not be. For you are Life and you exist Now … so become what you are.”
Reverend Jaganath Carrera
For an up-to-date and inclusive translation of Patanjali's Yoga Surtras, refer to Reverend Jaganath's Inside the Yoga Sutras. With another translation on the way, he offers, "The goal of Yoga is not to obtain something that is lacking. It is the realization of an already present reality. Yoga practice does not bring about Self Realization directly - Yoga removes the obstacles that obstruct its experience."
Sri Nisargaddata Maharaj
A chain-smoking gnani (self-realized) Guru from the 1960s, Maharaj encouraged practitioners to dive deep into the question, who am I? From published conversations with him in a book entitled, I Am That, "When the mind is kept away from its preoccupations, it becomes quiet. If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and a love you have never known, and yet, you recognize it at once as your own nature."
Abraham Hicks
As the inspiration for The Secret, the teachings of Abraham resonate regardless of the source. Far more than manifesting things, these teachings are Zen at the core - we choose our own experience A favorite quote, "Do not look for love of self, look for Love that is Self." We are, as Abraham says, liquid love; that is our True Nature and loving is our natural state of being,
Other Teachers and/or Spiritually Informed Books
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
- Epictetus, The Art of Living
- Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of Heaven is Within You
- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
- Vernon Kitabu Turner, Soul Sword: The way and mind of a Zen warrior
- Nischala Joy Devi, The Secret Power of Yoga
- Eknath Easwaran, translation of, The Dhammapada
- Cheri Huber, There Is Nothing Wrong With You
- Amit Goswami, Ph.D., The Self-Aware Universe
- Any and all poems by Hafiz or Rumi