I've been working with my inner reactions to encounters in my life, but I'm realizing much of what I've been dealing with are really internal issues... someone cuts in front of me at the grocery store and my inner dialogue begins about how they did it on purpose, they don't like me, etc. But what is the response if someone were to actually hurt me outwardly, i.e., if someone walked up to me an...

Question: What about children? For example, my child is being disrespectful. I can clearly see that I am resisting and insisting that the child be other than what he is in that moment. I also see that I'm identified with something. I unconsciously want to be the mother of a delightfully flawless little angel. I do realize that that's nuts. But how do I carry out my duties as a mother without resisting bad behavior and insisting on good behavior from a young child?

Question: Childhood experiences -- with all the dramas -- seem to set up a blueprint for the rest of our lives. The same issues seem to keep repeating over and over. How do we break away from these patterns? I keep blaming my parents for forming my personality, and I (in turn) blame myself for my children's personalities. How do we get out of this hell?

Question: One of the things I would really like to get better at in my practice is compassion, particularly with my spouse. She is not into what I'm into, but I want to be aware that I am just as helpless as she is. I want to be conscious of that, and I just want to be compassionate.

Question: I have been through hell, and what's kept me going is the inner knowing I have that there is another way of being. It's been challenging in the last few years to discuss this with others who judge that I am attracting and/or creating the pain and trauma. I sat with that belief for a long time, hoping to find my way through by seeing where I was "mis-creating." What I found was that...

Question: I am a full-time elementary school teacher and I find the workload and daily demands of the classroom nearly unbearable. I got into teaching because I have a passion for literacy and wanted to help children learn to read, however with the demands of my current position, I only spend maybe 30 minutes a day doing the "dream" aspects of my job. I feel strongly about my passion...

Question: I understand that the purpose of this moment is not to feel certain or to feel better about "myself." I know that my work is to see this lower nature in me, to watch it fall down, and to consciously suffer that. I want to work to be a sincere student, to deliberately set aside more time for prayer and attention exercises, yet I continue to feel used by a nature that acts...

Question: Many men seem to have a fear of intimacy and difficulty connecting with their depth of feeling. Women seem to miss intimacy in their partnerships with men. I wonder if there is this kind of difference in men and women's spiritual yearning? I bet you could create a special seminar for men on how to connect more deeply with their feelings.

Question: Is it possible that some of us just cannot learn in a single lifetime? The mind says enough is enough. Having done all I can and failed, there is only a fleeting flicker of light at the end of this tunnel. I accept that only Divinity can provide in this moment, but I'm tired and wait in silence to hear. Knowing I need help, I continue to ask. Will this be enough?

Question: There is a feeling of being stuck in all the lies that spin within this consciousness and I am humbled at seeing where I have been living, and the lie that I have been above that. I don't feel judgement in seeing these facts but am a bit horrified.

Question: How can somebody put an end to the seeking? All the questions about life and death seem to bring new questions and more anxiety, and no resolution. I do not want to follow any spiritual recipe or practice but want to live and just be without fearing the unknown answers to all these increasing questions.

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...