When I consider “dirty money,” and how we may carry a secret disgust around currency, I think of Sheik Sidi. This wise old Sufi teacher once warned me, “Don’t squash the levels.” He was addressing the struggle many humans face: we may strive to be sacred, to live in more peaceful communion with others, to… Continue Reading Is Money Really the Root of All Evil? Continue Reading Is Money Really the Root of All Evil?
Money: A Great Idea Gone Bad?
Where did it all go so wrong? Money was supposed to keep the peace, not ruin it. When caveperson #1 wanted something from caveperson #2, s/he would look to trade. If #2 also wanted something from #1, all good! But what would happen if there weren’t a mutual wanting? Someone would get hurt, even killed;… Continue Reading Money: A Great Idea Gone Bad?
Making Peace with Money (or, how to live with what you can’t live without)
Money is the root of all evil. Money can’t buy you love. Money makes the world go around. Poor money! All these expectations placed on an object that, at this point, doesn’t even have any inherent value. A piece of paper with some ink and a strip of special metallic material. Actually, not even that…just… Continue Reading Making Peace with Money (or, how to live with what you can’t live without)
Love In Action: Conclusion to What is Love
So how can you help? Does that query daunt you? Does it fill you with dread at the dramatic actions required in a world falling apart to impact, in even the most minor way, the love-starved world in which we live. Take heart. Here’s a story (another true one) I love to tell my clients,… Continue Reading Love In Action: Conclusion to What is Love
Giving the Gift of Honesty, by Guest Writer Nancy Weaver
Nancy Weaver is a wonderful craftsperson currently living in Texas, and is an explorer of inner and outer worlds. I hope this insightful commentary from her gives you the same inspiration it did, me. Today I am giving myself the gift of honesty. Not that brutal judging interaction we sometimes call honesty. But unconditional love… Continue Reading Giving the Gift of Honesty, by Guest Writer Nancy Weaver
Giving Your Love, Life: The Role of Service in Making Love Real
How can I help? Ram Dass and Paul Gorman wrote a book entitled that, in 1987, with the subtitle, “Stories and Reflections on Service.” Service may not be an appealing word, but as this book, countless volunteers and innumerable true friends assert, service at its core is love in action. For the previous month, and… Continue Reading Giving Your Love, Life: The Role of Service in Making Love Real
Trauma: Help In Understanding
Imagine, if you will, standing on the very top of the highest peak of a great mountain. All around you, the most magnificent view. Yet, you find yourself only able to look down, in all directions, the precarious slope, falling away in all directions to certain death. Wouldn’t you become rigid with terror, afraid to… Continue Reading Trauma: Help In Understanding
Attachment (Pt 2): A Bridge Just Far Enough
So here’s a story, and it’s a true one, the very best kind. It’s about monkeys, baby monkeys no less, adorable and playful…and very intelligent. This makes them a good study for human babies. In the fifties, a study was done using these monkeys. First, the scientists rigged a chicken-wire “mother” with feeding apparatus. The… Continue Reading Attachment (Pt 2): A Bridge Just Far Enough
Attachment (Pt 1): Essential to Love
Attachment. If you’re Buddhist, you know this is a baaad thing. The source of all suffering, in fact. If you’re a traditional psychotherapist, or a rabid reader of self-help books, you might identify this as the driver for codependence. Also, very baaad. And if you subscribe to the American ideal of individualism, you avoid it… Continue Reading Attachment (Pt 1): Essential to Love
Valentine’s Day: Love and Sacrifice
It’s Valentine’s Day, and either you’re going on a date, staying in with your beloved (?), bemoaning the lack thereof, or oblivious. Because Valentine’s Day is for lovers, right? Wrong! Well, at least not always. Until the 14th century and Goeffrey Chaucer, it celebrated a multitude of saints and the value of sacrifice. In the… Continue Reading Valentine’s Day: Love and Sacrifice