Said a despairing client to the psychiatrist, “No matter where I go I have to take myself along – and that spoils everything.”

Both what you run away from – and what you yearn for – is within you.
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A disciple came to the Muslim Master Maruf Karkhi and said, “I have been talking to people about you. The Jews say you are one of their own. The Christians consider you to be one of their saints. And the Muslims look upon you as a glory to Islam.”

Maruf replied, “That’s what they say here in Baghdad. When I lived in Jerusalem, the Jews dubbed me a Christian; the Christians, a Muslim; and the Muslims, a Jew.”

“Then what are we to think of you?” (more…)

The way to overcome the inertia or stagnation produced by anxiety is to grasp the significance of change as the stuff of life. Life is ever-new creation. It is a false sense of security that inspires one to resist change. To flow with the flux of change, and yet remain anchored in the eternal, is the secret of living.

The key to the problem of suffering is (more…)

“You are free to believe what you choose and what you do attests to what you believe.”

You most likely believe that your experiences have taught you what is real and what is true – at least for you. However, what you may not know is that your beliefs – conscious and unconscious – have determined (more…)

“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it! (Ecolonometrics in Action,, July/August 2001, 9)

If you were to create an ideal future for yourself, what would it be like?

All things that now exist in form were once simply ideas in consciousness. We each hold the power to manifest different circumstances for our lives. If we wish to manifest a new reality for ourselves, we need to (more…)

The ability to shift perspective can be one of the most powerful and effective tools we have to help us cope with life’s daily problems.

If you look from a different angle, then surely the person who caused this anger in you will have a lot of other positive aspects, positive qualities. If you look carefully, you will also find that the act which has made you angry has also given you certain opportunities, something which otherwise would not have been possible, even from your point of view. (Dalai Lama)

A former inmate of a Nazi concentration camp was visiting a friend who had shared the ordeal with him.
“Have you forgiven the Nazis?” he asked his friend.
“Yes.”
“Well, I haven’t. I’m consumed with hatred for them.”
“In that case,” said his friend gently, “they still have you in prison.”

… (our enemies are not those who hate us but those whom we hate)… (From “The Heart of the Enlightened” by Anthony deMello, page 107)

Nothing surpasses the holiness of those who have learned perfect acceptance of everything that is.

In the game of cards called life one plays the hand one is dealt to the best of one’s ability.

Those who insist on playing, not the hand they were given, but (more…)

The great British historian, Arnold Toynbee, studied the rise and fall of 22 different civilizations and “summarized everything he knew about the growth of human civilizations in one law called the “law of progressive simplification.” This law states that (more…)

What sort of science is it that must, for the sake of is predictive success, hope and pray that people will never be their better selves, but always be greedy social idiots with nothing finer to do than getting and spending, getting and spending?

We need a nobler economics that is not afraid to discuss spirit and conscience, moral purpose and the meaning of life, and economics that aims to educate an elevate people, not merely to measure their low-grade behavior…..

Economic progress is obtainable only if (more…)