Years ago, at the start of a new relationship, I told my partner: “I have to be careful. I tend to play the role of caretaker and put...

In the Bible, Satan tests Job by stripping away his wealth, health, and family. Job’s friends come to comfort him and sit silently beside...

A monk asked Abba Poemen, “How should I pray?” “The way you already can,” the elder said. “Do not struggle to rise beyond your strength....

In the late 60s, Peggy Lee recorded a song called, “Is That All There Is?” In it, she recalls her life’s high points and heartbreaks:...

I’ve only ever had one post go “viral”. It was a simple piece about humility that, for some reason, spread like wildfire online. Soon it...

You may know the Greek myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun with wings made of feathers and wax. The sun melted his wings, and...

Nietzsche said, “The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.” Greatness often comes cloaked in smallness. To live...

The other day, I saw a flyer that said, “Scan this QR code to find out why you’re undateable.” I’m sure many people took the bait. We’re...

My European friends are often shocked by the U.S. tipping system, which they correctly see as a way of shifting the burden of fair wages...

There’s a verse in the Qur’an (26:224-226) that says: “Have you seen the poets who lead people astray? They wander distracted in every...

The Persian poet Saadi tells a story of a king stung by a bee. Enraged, the king ordered all beehives in his kingdom destroyed. His...

I recently heard a teacher give a talk on acceptance. Once, he said, when he was in the military, he had to travel in a caravan across...

Someone recently used the term, “Spiritual Peter Pan Syndrome”: the belief that yoga, meditation, etc. will somehow make you “born again”...

The Buddha was asked how he crossed the flood of suffering. He replied: “Not by pushing forward, not by standing still. For when I pushed...

A friend said that, when she first went to India, she was horrified to see people touching the feet of their gurus. Like most Westerners,...

Years ago, I was at a post office in a tiny northern Indian village, when I noticed that one of the clerks had written over his desk:...

In the West, we tend to trace our suffering back to some event in the past: “My parents screwed me up.” “My ex made me scared of...

During the Vietnam War, Jack Kornfield was staying at a Burmese monastery where he met two Quaker peace activists. One saw Jack...

Back in the 1980s, there was a t-shirt that said, “Jesus is coming. Everybody look busy.” It’s a good encapsulation of the American work...

One of the hardest things for people who grew up feeling unheard or silenced to learn is that speaking a lot of words now won’t make them...