Awakenings may hap­pen because of some alarming event like a negative medical diagnosis or the death of someone you love. An awakening may rise out of necessity or it may come as a “sobering” of a drunken ego overwhelmed with guilt. Once awakened, we must prepare ourselves for the jour­ney.

Most people who seek out Buddhism think that practice will enable them to eliminate their pain and provide them with a state of permanent happiness. But the reality is that all that Buddhist practice will do is help us develop the skills to cope with this constant dissatisfaction and not turn our pain into suffering.

When Google promoted a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan to the role of “Jolly Good Fellow”, his career – and the entire culture of Silicon Valley – took a sharp turn.

Life is a great school, and nature is the ultimate teacher, but without awareness, or free attention, we miss life's teachings. Awareness transforms life experience into wisdom, and confusion into clarity. Awareness is the beginning of all growth.

Do we have the right to believe whatever we want to believe? This supposed right is often claimed as the last resort of the wilfully ignorant, the person who is cornered by evidence and mounting opinion

There is a meme that speaks directly to the hearts and minds of the overly self-conscious. Perhaps you’ve seen it; it goes something like this

Each of us passes through an array of experiences that creates a beautiful but complex weaving of life. Here is how you can find impressions from your past for the purpose of directing your future...

From stories dating back to my childhood, I have memories of the lamb as being the weak one... The one who followed innocently... the one who had to be sheltered... the one who had to be picked up and carried to its nourishment and to its shelter. I recall seeing a lamb at its birth, and its legs were unable to support its weight. The lion on the other hand has...

Worrying about things we have no control over is counterproductive. It makes you tense -- which, in turn, ruins your judgment. When you are worried, you live in a state of fear. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to be loving, helpful, and kind on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis.

Earlier this year, one of us visited a prominent U.S. medical school to give a lecture on the topic of burnout and how physicians can find more fulfillment in the practice of medicine.

I saw a man wearing a t-shirt that declared, "Baseball is life. All else is details." Like this fellow, each of us chooses something that brings us life, and all else becomes details. I encourage you to stay with what brings you life, and let the details be just that.

When I was a child, I remember my mother using time-outs as punishment. However, even then, I enjoyed going to my room to think about how I was behaving and what I needed to do "to be a good boy". I enjoyed my time-out then, and I still do...

Tattoos are something you are going to wear and stare at for a long time. Once you decide to get a tattoo, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the body’s energy zones and how they interlock together as one consciousness.

I understand why people  feel unsettled, confused, and even frightened by what they observe going on in our world today. Everywhere we look we see chaos and change, disruption and destruction. We see suffering and privation; we see inequality and constriction of opportunity. We see a positive future for ourselves only dimly, at best.

The moment we can ask ourselves “Does this thought have anything to do with reality?” “Is this thought true?” we are starting to wake up. This understanding breaks the bondage, which is our total identification with thoughts, and empowers us to wake up from the dream state.

Your brain is a fascinating piece of machinery. It has remarkable capacity for development. Very subtle changes in how the brain develops, or in how it responds, can lead to us experiencing the world in vastly different ways.

Understanding the biology behind consciousness (or self-awareness) is considered by some to be the final frontier of science. And over the last decade, a fledgling community of “consciousness scientists” have gathered some interesting information...

Is self-control something you can acquire, like a new language or a taste for opera? Or is it one of those things you either have or don’t, like fashion sense or a knack for telling a good joke?

Endowing people with social power inflates the socially-toxic component of narcissism called exploitation and entitlement, according to new research.

We may be born surrounded by people and circumstances who will set us gently on our journey -- or we may have more difficult conditions. Those who, on Earth, seem to be our harshest taskmasters, may be very close to us in our soul group.

With all the technology and modern conveniences we enjoy, living should be easier and more prosperous for everyone. Still, for many there is a gradual erosion of the quality of their lives. The energies that have supported the economic and religious systems of the world in the past are evolving and changing.

Some of the first things that often need to be overcome when seeking to engage a higher degree of balance in one's life are the all-too commonly-held myths and misconceptions about Life Balance and how to achieve it. Here are four of the most prevalent ones in our society...

Today, millions of previously gracious, loving individuals have been enrolled in madness. They, or perhaps we, now hate the President and rage against a rigged system. Self-righteousness doesn’t alter the frequency of our personal energetic broadcasts, be they loving or hateful. We witness the reflection as escalating “terrorism” of various kinds. As within, so without.