Freeing Ourselves by Loving Ourselves (retreat talk)
In this human realm, healing and spiritual realization are rooted in awakening a love for the life that is here. This talk looks at our habit of feeling we should be different than we are, and the ways that mindfulness and self-compassion help enable us to not only...
Namaste – Seeing the Sacred that Lives through all Beings
The trance of separation is part of our evolutionary heritage, but not the end of the story. This talk explores how several key trainings of the heart can evolve and awaken our capacity to realize connectedness, and the sacredness that shines through this living...
Loving Yourself into Freedom (Retreat Talk)
The most basic truths we forget, and one is this: if we don’t love ourselves, we can’t love life. In the most basic way, attending to and embracing our inner life reveals the nature of reality. This talk looks at the genesis of self-aversions and several...
Blog: Reaching Out For Compassion
At a weekend workshop I led, one of the participants, Marian, shared her story about the shame and guilt that had tortured her. Marian’s daughter, Christy, in recovery for alcoholism, had asked her mother to join her in therapy. As their sessions unfolded, Christy...
Blog: From Self-judgment to Compassion
We were three days into a weeklong meditation retreat when one of my students, Daniel, came in to see me for his first interview. He plopped down in the chair across from me, and immediately pronounced himself The Most Judgmental Person In The World. “Whatever I’m...
Blog: Connecting with Our ‘Soul Sadness’
Marge, a woman in our meditation community, was in a painful standoff with her teenage son. At fifteen, Micky was in a downward spiral of skipping classes and using drugs, and had just been suspended for smoking marijuana on school grounds. While Marge blamed...Cultivating Compassion
We each have the potential to live with a compassionate, open heart. In this talk we explore the conditioning that closes us off to authentic caring, and the ways of deepening our attention that help us live to include widening circles of beings in our heart.
Part 1: The Healing Power of Self-Compassion
Learning to hold our own lives with a gentle compassion is a key element in all emotional healing and spiritual awakening. This two part series explores the suffering of being at war with ourselves and the pathway to freeing our hearts. Music at end is Libby Roderick, “How Could Anyone?”