On the spiritual journey, we need to unpack our challenges as divine gifts that have the ability to unlock our potential. But that potential can only be reached if we're willing to face fears, walk in partnership with our unconscious, and do the work necessary to transform the mind. Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chodron tells us: "Difficult things provoke all your irritations and bring your habitual patterns to the surface. And that becomes the moment of truth. You have the choice to launch into your lousy habitual patterns, or to stay with the rawness and discomfort of the situation and let it t ..read more

There's a Buddhist tale about an old Zen farmer who lives very modestly. He is dependent on the help of his one son as well as the labor of their horse. One day, a fence brakes and the horse runs off. The farmer's neighbors come by exclaiming, "Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!" The farmer replies, "Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see." A week later, the horse comes back to the farm, accompanied by five other wild horses. The neighbors were amazed, shouting in celebration, "Now you'll be able to produce more crops! This is such good fortune!" Again, the farmer replies, "Maybe so, maybe not ..read more

If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's. ~ Joseph Campbell Mythologist and scholar Joseph Campbell codified a map of human transformation that is true across cultures and time periods. Known as the Hero's Journey or the Monomyth, this guide offers us a way to experience our lives through the lens of ancient symbols and follow the path of our soul. As Campbell himself explains, "myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of human life." The events that spark these potentialities are innate to Campbell's stages of the Hero's Journey: departure, initiation, and re ..read more

This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into what is unknown, uncharted and shaky — that's called liberation. ~ Pema Chödrön The holidays of Juneteenth and the Fourth of July offer an opportunity to reflect on freedom. We celebrate laws and policies that protect and support the freedom of all people to live fulfilled lives and flourish in their communities; uplifting others is important spiritual work. Even more challenging is the work of freeing ourselves internally. To be completely free, we need not only external freedom, but freedom from the conditioned thinking of t ..read more

What you seek is seeking you. ~ Rumi As seekers, one of the most important skills we can develop on the spiritual path is called viveka in the East, otherwise known as discernment or discrimination. This is the ability to discriminate between the actions, decisions, and thoughts that lead us forward on our path and those that lead us away from our calling. During this time in human development, we have access to a world of information at our fingertips. There are seemingly countless spiritual practices that promise to calm, heal, and clarify. Which do we choose? The first important step is to ..read more

It is your destiny to see as God sees, to know as God knows, to feel as God feels. ~ Meister Eckhart The figure Sheik Nasreddin is popular subject in Muslim folklore; he is usually portrayed either as a fool or a wise man (or both!), and his strange antics are meant to impart important lessons for the spiritual path. We can find an important bit of spiritual wisdom in one such popular story. A man walks home late one evening and sees Sheik Nasreddin under a streetlight on his hands and knees, frantically looking for something on the ground. The concerned man stops and asks Nasreddin what he's ..read more

Learn the Way of Truth from the clarity of water, learn freedom from the spreading grass. ~ Hafiz We are entering the time of year that demonstrates we can become something new akin to the blossoming and birth that rise out of winter. Nature's resurrection is an external enactment of what is also possible for us internally: we have the ability to leave behind old paradigms and establish ourselves in a foundation that nourishes us and the world in a profoundly new way. Despite its poor reputation in the West, the snake is a rich, ancient symbol of the feminine and rebirth. The snake's ability ..read more

Between the conscious and the unconscious, the mind has put up a swing. ~ Rumi For the past four weeks, I led a course on the shadow, a term coined by psychiatrist Carl Young that refers to all the aspects of our mind that live in "the dark," unseen by the ego mind. Spiritual practice requires that we bring consciousness to bear on our shadow in order to become fully awake and aware. Without this work, our mind acts from an unconscious, automatic pattern that inflicts suffering on ourselves and others. Individuals project their feelings, seeing the outside world as the source of their pain. H ..read more

Your boundaries are your quest. You must have shadow and light source both. Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe. ~ Rumi The main goal of Eastern spiritual practice is to know God directly, as many saints, sages, and mystics have done across the ages. In order to (re)discover ourselves as the divine, we need to create a new relationship with the mind and the body that recognizes them as valuable instruments without seeing them as our source of identity. Typically, we judge our sense of value and purpose based on the capabilities of the body and the mind. We feel good about ourselve ..read more

The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth. ~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching No mud, no lotus.~ Buddhist proverb Entering a new year gives us the opportunity to reflect on our path. While life offers many gifts, we inevitably face challenges along the way. Lao Tzu reminds us that "the truth is not always beautiful." We may need to accept truths about ourselves and the world that feel painful or overwhelming for the mind. One of the highest spiritual skills is disciplining the mind to remain present and conscious in the midst of discomfort. But the rewards of that discipline are r ..read more