When we arrive back home after a mountaintop experience, often we are required to deal with the maddening routines of life. Laundry has to be done, dishes have to be washed, professional work needs our attention, lawns have to be mowed, pets need to be cared for, and our families need our attention; all of these...

In the Eastern view, the dualistic energies of heaven and earth meet within the human body. Many Western traditions say as much: we are soul made flesh. Picture the divine in each of us as a ballerina en pointe. Exquisitely balanced...

Once when I was at a lecture, a woman approached me during the break and said, "One of our problems is we don't cultivate wise elders in this culture.  People are surrounded all their lives by the belief that old age is a time of misery, defeat, irrelevance and meaninglessness..."

I was taught when I was a little boy that it was good to be unselfish and loving, and I used to think that I should grow up to serve other people.

Making a loaf of Sabbath bread on Friday morning was my grandmother's favorite teaching tool. As she kneaded the dough, she said, "This is what the world does to you sometimes. It stretches you, and pushes you around, and..."

by Patricia Monaghan. The lore and love and specificity associated with Irish places grow directly from Ireland's residual paganism. But that paganism does not conflict with a devout Catholicism that embraces and absorbs it. The old ways were seamlessly bonded to the new, so that ancient rituals...

People often ask me how long and often to meditate. No one way suits everyone. Spending more time is better, but it depends on the individual's needs and potential. If you have demands on your time and energy, then the effort to meditate could just create more of a burden...

by Gregg Braden. Without a doubt, we do live in a world of opposites. In theology, these opposites take on names and appearances that translate into the forces of light and dark, good and evil. While I'm not denying their existence, I am describing how it's possible to change what they mean in our lives and redefine...

Meditation is simple and practical. In a curious way, it is as ordinary as it gets. Many people who try it at first don't think they are doing it right; it's so simple and unextraordinary, they think meditation must be something more complex or esoteric than what they're doing.

The most direct way to encourage your children to ask for help is to teach them to pray. Most kids like to pray once they learn how and will do it naturally in some form or another anyway. Whatever approach you take, the truth is that you can choose how you pray. After all, prayer is really having a private chat with God...

Who are we really? What is really the meaning of Life? How can we attain lasting happiness in the face of our seemingly endless troubles? These questions are basic to our lives, and it is from these questions that the practice of Zen has its birth. Zen can be the compassionate scalpel that removes the layers of accrued opinions, beliefs, and...

Imagine the presence of a great warmth that feels utterly nurturing, good, and peaceful. See it as the most beautiful color or colors that you can imagine. Feel it as having the texture or sensation of something incredibly soft, like a favorite blanket or article of clothing, the skin of a baby, or the fur of an animal.

The weeds keep multiplying in our garden, which is our mind ruled by fear. Rip them out and call them by name. The illnesses, the rejections, the defamations, the injustices, the aloneness, all the "I should haves" and "I didn't do's." In place of the ugly weeds of fear, plant now the roses of Hope, Love...

Hope is an expectation, not always with absolute certainty, but with confidence and assurance that something can or will happen. Hope is a desire accompanied by a belief in fulfillment. Hope is a force that urges us on — stimulating us to continue. It is a powerful force that we...

I realize the whole universe is at my fingertips, as is my willingness to manifest what is needed in my reality. Every experience of life is God teaching me. As I look in this pure state of awareness, I feel the pure energy within my whole body. From the rhythm of my breathing, I feel a quiet state of attunement — one with God.

Problems do not limit your aliveness or happiness. They are simply challenges that give you opportunities to make choices and grow. As you increasingly open to yourself, happiness wells up from deep inside you. Feel it. Remember a happy feeling from the past, or imagine one now. If you like, tie it to a scene or image. Feel the feeling. Be in the middle of it. Let the happiness of that feeling fill you full and overflow beyond you, filling the room.

The phrase "thy will be done" in the Lord's Prayer is a statement of resignation for many, the calling down of a power to do something that may not be what we had in mind. It's as though we're saying, "Since I can't have what I want in life, I guess I'll have to settle...

Meditation does work. Millions of learned and loving people have practiced it throughout the ages, because it clears the mind and opens the heart. The current interest in meditation has inspired many modern teachers to simplify the ancient techniques...

Relaxation and muscle balance are necessary to the practices of concentration and meditation so that (1) the body may not be injured by the mental efforts and (2) the mental work may not be spoiled by bodily discomfort. Third, we have to remember that bodily attitudes are associated with states of feeling, such as lying down with sleep, and...

Co-meditation is based on the principle that a certain mode of respiration evokes a particular state of mind and vice-versa. The power of the breath and the breath-mind relationship has been recognized for centuries by many cultures and religious traditions. Like other forms of meditation, the deep abdominal breathing produced by co-meditation affects the...

Take a moment now and find the very center of your energy. Let your focus soften as you become one with your surroundings for the next few moments as we travel together. Ask permission to join with the Earth and for her to be a part of your circle at this time. Breathe deeply and feel the energy shift in the room...

Jenny was eager to talk to me about her five-year-old nephew, who she was beginning to believe was the reincarnation of her grandfather. She hadn't known that it was possible for a child to be the reincarnation of a family member. Now Dylan's strange behaviors were beginning to make sense to her.

Could any of us watching Peter Pan struggling with his shadow -- to find his shadow, to keep his shadow and, ultimately, to "bind" his shadow to him -- have known that the shadow carries powerful psychological implications? We might have noticed that Peter seemed different once his shadow was firmly attached. He was still delightful and charming but slightly subdued and not quite so self-centered and irresponsible. A bit more... dare we say, grown up? As Peter Pan could tell us, the shadow is...