Approaching the Finish Line
And now there is the brilliance – the brilliance – as things begin to reveal their inner light. And now also the shadow, no longer lurking – how everything is present without praise or apology – And so the bottom line turns out to be the radical acceptance of the unacceptable and equally well the […]
The Last Time
You never know if this is going to be the last time, the last holiday season, the last menstrual period, the last trip to the mountains, the last whatever. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if, for instance, it were just the last time you were ever to put gas in the car, except, […]
Passing the Torch
One of the things that popped out of my mouth near the end of a recent satsang here in my home was that we are like a forest, there are little trees with trunks the diameter of a few centimeters, big, leafy trees with huge trunks, and fallen logs composting back into the ground. And as the […]
This Dying Business
This dying business is very interesting. First of all, one never knows how long it will last – six months? a year? two? – thus shining quite a bright light on the present moment, if it was not there already. Second of all, absolutely nothing has changed and nothing is changing and never will. And […]
Living in the Unknown, Part 2
Still living in the unknown, dancing on the high-wire of plans and no-plans. At either end of the wire, the stability of Home, to either side, the spaciousness of Home. Somewhere in between there is the condition alternating between “I-can’t-make-plans-because-of-my-uncertain-health,” and “Carry on, regardless.” I notice out the second floor window, a cable company technician […]
Life’s Variety Show
And so the daily business and the immensity continue. Snow is melting in the northeast, creeks are drying up in the southwest, all against the backdrop of the changeless. Sky is sky, no matter what is falling out of it or evaporating back into it. Do we voice an opinion? Maybe. Or maybe not. We […]
Living in the Unknown
Life is full of surprises! We are always living in the unknown but we do not always know it. We only know it when something takes us by surprise. We may be pleasantly surprised or we may object vigorously, but ultimately, Life prevails. This time, Life is prevailing in the form of this physical body […]
Famous Last Words
Here are some famous last words: “Mehr licht” (“more light”) – Goethe “Ram” – Gandhi “Let’s rent a movie” – Swami Satchidananda (his way of encouraging his students to leave the room so he could pass in peace.) “Calcium carbonate” – from a geology professor who dropped dead in the middle of a lecture about […]
Not-news
So here’s the not-news: Just in case there was any confusion about This, the me-costume we are wearing is not permanent. In good times it could be seen as bad news. In bad times it could be seen as good news. But ultimately, we wear this me-costume in order to discover that what is beneath, […]
Yoga and Creativity
At the heart of the Kashmiri Tantric tradition is the effulgence of Pure Creativity, whether at the cosmic dimension as the Absolute takes manifestation as form, or at the individual level as silence emerges into word, sound and image. The Tantric masters of the medieval period were not only great yogis but also great writers, […]