We all know how imprecise language is, and how hard it is for our words (and thoughts for that matter) to capture reality. The best we can do is an approximation. I heard a marvelous story recently on this point.

There’s a great quote uttered by John Kenneth Galbraith, famed Harvard economist:

Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.

It is of course quite perceptive and somewhat endearing, but the deeper question is… why is it so true?

People often talk about “balance” as in "work-life balance", or "work hard then play hard.” The idea of not going too far in any one direction without a counter-move back makes obvious sense, but I believe there may be a deeper issue involved that I wanted to share some thoughts on.

As I have written before, the major human delusion and desire is to get everything just right—and then freeze things so they do not change. We imagine that if we just try hard enough we can somehow enter that Promised Land and stay there. Good luck with that!

I find this to be a most interesting phrase, as it has served me for most of my life, especially spiritually.

This is a line from a favorite chant of mine. It has nothing to do with children and their desire to play. It has everything to do with us and our own desires. It is actually surprisingly the same; it just grows more complex and sophisticated as we get older.

It is perfectly natural to think about what happens to us. Things can bother us or even hurt us deeply. We also can find great happiness and even exultation in certain situations. While such swings are not necessarily the best for us, they are natural. However, there is something deeper going on that warrants our attention.

Everyone is familiar with the term, but I suspect not that many people know what yoga actually is. It's a lot more than postures and meditation.

There has always been an interesting dynamic between the thought of grace and our responsibility for bettering ourselves. Ramakrishna said, "The winds of grace are always blowing, but it is up to us to raise our sails." What a beautiful image and clear exposition. But it may be useful to unpackage it a little bit more. What is "raising our sails" comprised of?

It is easy to see something that is "off" and to focus on removing it. This is of course often sensible, but when it comes to dealing with ourselves, more often than not, such a focus is not the right idea.

It’s funny how much we respect expertise in many fields, but most people are somewhat hesitant when that expertise extends to our own lives.

I wrote last week that we are much less in charge than we think we are. But while it is true that we need to rely on Spirit, that (unfortunately?) does not take us off the hook! Cooperating is essential for our lives to unfold in the best way, and in the way that is intended for us. A story I was recently reminded of makes this quite clear…

There’s a good American friend of mine who spent many years living in India, where he was a teacher of yoga philosophy. He has been a disciple of Yogananda for over 50 years, and is someone I have looked up to as a friend and mentor for many decades.

This is a slightly different angle on the the recent theme of “there’s more going on than we know or than we can actually affect”. The part of our lives that is our responsibility should receive 100% of our focus and energy, of course, but there is more going on beneath the surface than we are aware of…

I wrote about my brain tumor and surgery at 17 years old a few weeks ago. An amazing, painful, long-recovery experience. What I did not share was that it turned out to be one of the greatest episodes of my life.

Images are often quite useful when trying deeply to understand a subtle concept. I'd like to share an image that has always been helpful for me.

Last week we talked about intention vs. action. If you do your best and make an honest mistake, there is no karma involved. But it is actually a bit more subtle than that (…not all that surprising, right? :-) )

I wanted to address a somewhat subtle point this week: intention vs. action. It is easy to see someone's actions, and of course much harder to see intention.

I have written often about our desire to fill the hole in our hearts with material things, prestige, money, power, popularity, etc. Those things ultimately fail lifetime after lifetime, so we eventually turn to Spirit.

My spiritual teacher had a phrase he often used (even writing a book with this title). I'd like to share why this is an important phrase and how and why we sometimes get it wrong.

There is a core human belief that we have a very limited amount of energy, and that conserving it is a great idea. While there is of course some truth to this thought, it gets misapplied often and to our detriment.