My spouse of 25 years died. My heart is in pain, and though I know that God is here, I don't understand the purpose of life and such suffering. My father died recently and I find myself often slipping into thinking about my grief -- overcome with memories, regrets, and a sense of loss. Though I can't conceive of how it may be possible, I can't stop hoping that my father remains in God's love...

I have read so much religion and philosophy over the years... and now I only want to die. I am convinced that there is simply no such thing as a life worth living. I seek only absolute death, total extinction, pure non-being as the only good. (From student correspondence)...

Classroom Talk: 04/19/2026 - Whatever it may be within us that fears death…is itself the thing that must die.

We live in a stream of a living light that never stops pouring down upon us, even as it ceaselessly wells up from within us. The first part of this opening comment is obvious: sunlight streams down moment to moment upon our earth, vitalizing and nourishing all that it touches. And while this order of light allows us to see all the marvelous forms and colors that our physical eyes behold...

Do you have anything that will help eradicate the fear of death? I have experienced this for years and it makes my life miserable. I have tried many therapies over the years (which I have paid a fortune for), all to no avail. Actually I have an obsession with this fear as well as the fear of illness. I think the fear of illness really is that I would get an illness that would be terminal. I be...

All forms of psychological fear are created and sustained out of an uninvestigated relationship with a lower part of us that lives in perpetual fear of its own death. Until we understand that this fear is not "our" fear, but exists because of an unseen attachment to an imagined identity, it will continue to have authority over us.

Not long ago I lost my wife of many years to cancer. I am certain that was the beginning of my spiritual awakening. I read in a book of Jewish wisdom a phrase written by a rabbi who said: When you lose a parent you lose the "past." When you lose a spouse you lose the "present." When you lose a child you lose the "future." Where in the realm of the power of "now" does that place the loss of my...

Classroom Talk: 04/27/2025 - For us, death – even as we “learn to live” in its fearsome shadow – seems to mark the end of all that we have known; a looming “last show” when the theatre will be closed, and the final curtain drawn. But, there is another kind of death; and it is the end of fear: rebirth realized in the voluntary sacrifice, and concurrent death of the “knower”.

A student recently asked about "how to process the death of a client." It is the mind that wants to "process" whatever it does in order to restore its sense of equilibrium: a false system of checks and balances produced by images, beliefs, and their attending fears that shake with every shock. If there's grief, let there be grief; if there's regret or some kind of doubt, let that be as it is...

Today I received, for the 10,000th time, an email asking me if I believe in Jesus Christ...with all of the rest of the usual "trappings" (a good word for such questions, by the way). Here is my response: There is only one way, and one way only that any of us will ever know the real meaning of Christ's life, and that is to share in his death – this means we must give up what he gave up if we wo...

The only one way that any of us will ever know the real meaning of Christ's life is to share in His death. This means that we must give up what this man gave up if we want to know from ourselves what was gained through His deliberate sacrifice. If we want to know the truth behind Christ's act, then we must stop thinking about it and get down to the business of actually doing it ourselves. It...