True listening is essential to be happy and at peace. I believe hearing is the first physical sense we develop in the womb, although in a primal form (with no sense of separation), when we “hear” our mother’s heart beat. Then, once we’re born, our mother’s voice makes us feel safe and nurtured, even as our other senses begin to…
Tag: spiritual healing
Do You Have a Fixed or an Open Mindset?
The protests we’re witnessing are a natural response to the blatant racism and abuse of power that has created and continues to create suffering and injustice (see Why Martial Souls Rule The World). But they’re also a reflection of our individualized perceptions on the collective movie: the eternal battle between the egoic illusions of separation, power, and control, and our…
Your Life-Movie Is a Dream Within a Dream
Once Lord Krishna and his close disciple Narada went for a walk. While they were walking, Narada asked, “Master, you say that the world is Maya, or delusion. Can you show me power of this Maya?” “Sure,” Krishna replied, “Let’s sit down under a tree and I shall tell you everything. But I am really thirsty, so would you be…
3 Essential Tools To Quiet the Ego-Mind
Four Zen meditation students who were friends decided to spend seven days together, promising to observe complete silence. Everything went well during the first day, and their meditation was deep, but as night came along and the oil lamps were getting dim, one of them couldn’t help exclaiming to a servant, “Fix those lamps!” Surprised to hear his friend, a…
How To Cultivate Contentment & Inner Peace
A young woman got pregnant in the small village where Zen master Hakuin was living. Her father forced her to confess the name of her lover, but she managed to protect him by pretending it was Hakuin. When the child was born, the infuriated father brought the baby to the monk, saying, “It appears this is your child!” along with…
The Path To Spiritual Freedom Is Not a Highway
I love this Zen story. A famous Japanese swordsman disowned his son Matajuro because he considered him too mediocre and undisciplined to ever reach the level of proficiency required to inherit his school. Bent on redeeming himself, the young man headed to Mount Futara to find renowned master Banzo, in the hopes to study with him. When he arrived and…
What Is the Spiritual Cure For Anxiety?
Do you worry about the prospect of events you judge as negative or the possibility of future suffering? How about past events and the way you responded to them? Perhaps your concerns relate more to a current self-perception—in terms of being right or wrong, perfect or imperfect—and how others see you now. You worry about whether your self-images are getting…