Has something within ever told you that "good captains" go down with the ship... suffering the fate of their ship, regardless of the consequences to their soul? That sinking sensation of being all alone, that dreaded feeling of inadequacy, those worried fearful thoughts... none of them, not a single one of them is your ship! Yes, the feel is real, but the why is a lie. The only way anyone w...

The fall of fear begins with our heightened awareness of fear's presence. Out of this higher level of self-consciousness comes something as mysterious as it is grand: the spiritual intolerance of fear. This deep, nonnegotiable disdain for fear comes to us in advance of the powers we need to win our freedom from it. And the arrival of this supreme strength -- that ultimately leads to lasting...

We are a peculiar race of beings. On one hand, each of us professes to be concerned with growing and self-developing while, on the other hand, none of us ever wants to be wrong. This is a paralyzing contradiction...

Meekly submitting to any negative emotion in the hopes it will run its course and leave us alone just invites it to subjugate us again.

Our eyes and ears, thoughts and feelings, empower us to move freely through the extraordinary web of life of which we're a part. But these gifts of perception, as considerable as they may be, are more like a looking glass than they are the keys to that secret kingdom of freedom we seek. With their aid, we can almost see into, and so confirm, that innermost realm where our heart senses we belong.

We struggle as best we can to free ourselves from dark unwanted states but invariably find ourselves short of the mark. Slowly but surely, one thing becomes clear: we start to see that calling upon who and what we have been to save us from our suffering is like asking a windstorm to neatly pile our autumn leaves.

By any account, the recent news of high profile suicides is sad, and all condolences go out to family and friends. But the serious aspirant must look into this kind of unhappy event with a wish to read between the lines, to see and realize the underlying story that leads to such tragedies, and to make that understanding personally transformative. How is it that one with so much knowledge, for...

We all know what it is like to be held captive of the little things in life -- those petty concerns and small desires that steal their way into how we look at our lives and pit us against anyone or anything seen as trying to take away our anticipated desire. Here is a short list of these little troublemakers that often make big trouble for us whenever we mistake them for being our friends: 1.

We all know what it is like to be held captive of the little things in life -- those petty concerns and small desires that steal their way into how we look at our lives and pit us against anyone or anything seen as trying to take away our anticipated desire. Here is a short list of these little troublemakers that often make big trouble for us whenever we mistake them for being our friends: *...

Waking up to ourselves describes a whole new level of being self-aware. We no longer know ourselves simply through the thoughts we have about ourselves, but we can now see these formerly self-defining thoughts as being only one small aspect of who we really are. So it can be said that awakening begins with being able to see that we have been...

In the news yesterday came this story: David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" – whose career roared back to life when he played the assassin-turned-victim in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" – was found dead Thursday in Thailand. Police said he appeared to have hanged himself. By any account, this is sad news, and all condolences go out to family and friends. But the serious...

The basic core of all true spiritual teachings is that the inner determines the outer. What this timeless idea means to us is that what we receive from life -- our experience of self in life -- is determined by how we perceive events. And how we see life is determined, each moment, by what we are looking at it through.