Our possibility for spiritual growth can’t be separated from our daily work to question, explore, and illuminate any dark thoughts and feelings that may confront us along the Way...

Lately the world seems filled with talk about Angels and how they watch over us. Do Angels and Devils really exist? How do I know which one is influencing my life? Traditional teachings refer to the devil as a red, pointed-eared creature who lives in hell. What is hell? And what is the devil? Are they just figments of our imagination?...

Part 1 On any battlefield, a good general always wants command of the higher ground because he knows it leads to victory. In (our) spiritual battles, being one with the higher ground is the victory. Part 2 The following holds true in all worlds, exterior and interior: the greater the clarity of what one needs to do to succeed with what's been envisioned, the more likely is that su...

Part 1 It seldom occurs to us that whatever we persist with in our lives works to perfect the same, so that by allowing persistent negative thoughts and feelings to have their way with us, we unknowingly perfect self-punishment! Part 2 As surely as raindrops have the power to make rivers or shape mountaintops, good fortune favors those who persist with their wish for what is Good.

Learn to let your love of exploring new and open spaces replace all of the ever-diminishing pleasures... found in all the old familiar places...

Topic: How to Transform Discouragement into the Truth that Sets You Free (9/1/19 Classroom Talk)

True compassion, unconditional kindness is our Divine, but largely unrealized capacity to “love our neighbor as our Self.” These gifts of Grace are one and the same as (our) awakening to realize that, in reality, there is no separate self...

Question: I would like a few helpful insights as to how I should handle (spiritually) my son's divorce. I'm a 66-year-old woman and he may have to live with me for a while. The whole situation is very stressful, and I worry about being able to hold up under it.

Question: I have attempted to practice non-resistance. Sometimes in doing this, the waves that pass through a given moment can be quite intense. Often I am among people or circumstances that make it difficult to "allow." This level of practice, in my (Buddhist) tradition, is usually undertaken by forest monks or people who've left lay life and live in a situation dedicated to this alone...

My question is about despair. After a long illness, I realize that to be happy, there has to be a willingness to not think about self or self-imagined problems. You have pointed to the need to call on the light or step into the light when assaulted by dark forces, yet I do not seem able to do so consistently because I am exhausted by physical illness.

Given my personal circumstances, I'm not able to understand how your statement, "it's very hard work to make something (so big) out of what really amounts to nothing," fits for me. Untimely death and other hardships that have impacted my family have resulted in much pain... not to mention the unbelievable hurt of being punished for someone else's actions. How does all of that "really amount to...